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UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

A 

The  Sacra  Idulia  in  Ovid's  Fasti 

A  Study  of  Ovid's  Credibility  in 

Regard  to  the  Place  and  the 

Victim  of  this  Sacrifice 


BY 

HORACE  WETHERILL  WRIGHT 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


NEWARK.  NEW  JERSEY 
1917 


GIFT  OF 


• 


UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


The  Sacra  Idulia  in  Ovid's  Fasti 

A  Study  of  Ovid's  Credibility  in 

Regard  to  tiie  Place  and  the 

Victim  of  this  Sacrifice 


BY 

HORACE  WETHERILL  WRIGHT 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


NEWARK,  NEW  JERSEY 
1917 


I*. 


([Oft* 


I  am  happy  in  having  this  opportunity  gratefully  to  acknowl- 
edge the  valuable  suggestions  and  kindly  criticism  and  proof- 
reading of  Professors  J.  C.  Rolfe,  W.  B.  McDaniel,  R.  G.  Kent, 
Assistant  Professors  G.  D.  Hadzsits  and  H.  B.  Van  Deventer, 
and  Doctors  T.  A.  Buenger  and  E.  H.  Heffner  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania ;  also  the  helpful  suggestions  and  kindly  reading 
and  criticism  of  the  first  chapter  given  by  Professor  Kirby  F. 
Smith  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  who  was  Acting  Director 
of  the  School  of  Classical  Studies  of  the  American  Academy  in 
Rome  during  my  Fellowship  in  that  Institution. 

H.  W.  W. 


381669 


PREFACE 

The  passages  in  Ovid's  Fasti  which  relate  to  the  sacra  Idulia 
give  rise  to  three  problems,  namely,  the  place  of  sacrifice,  the  sex 
of  the  victim,  and  the  age  of  the  victim.  The  scope  of  this  thesis 
is  confined  to  the  first  two  problems.  The  third  is  so  intimately 
related  to  a  study  of  the  iuvenci  offered  Jupiter  on  January  1, 
that  it  has  seemed  best  to  reserve  it  for  a  future  article,  in  which 
the  investigation  will  be  directed  as  much  to  cattle  as  to  sheep 
and  will,  therefore,  involve  a  close  study  of  other  sacrifices  besides 
the  sacra  Idulia. 


SELECTED  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum;  cited  CIL. 

Daremberg  et   Saglio,   Dictionnaire  des  antiquites  grecques   et 

romaines. 

Fowler,  W.  Warde,  Roman  Festivals,  London,  1908 ;  cited  R.  F. 
Fowler,  W.  Warde,  The  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman 

People,  London,  1911;  cited  R.  H.  R.  P. 
Franke,  C.,  De   Ovidii  Fastorum  Fontibus  Capita  Tria,  diss., 

Halle,  1909. 
Henzen,  Acta  Fratrum  Arvalium,  Berlin,  1874;  cited  Act.  Fr. 

Arv. 

Huelsen-Carter,  The  Roman  Forum,  2nd  ed.,  Rome,  1909. 
Jordan,  Topographie  der  Stadt  Rom,  Berlin,  1871-1907;  Vol.  I,  3, 

by  Ch.  Huelsen,  1907 ;  cited  Jordan. 
Keil,  Grammatici  Latini,  Leipzig,  1857-1880;  cited  Keil. 
Krause,    De    Romanorum   Hostiis    Quaestiones   Selectae,    diss. 

Marburg,  1894;  cited  Krause. 

Mau-Kelsey,  Pompeii,  Its  Life  and  Art,  2nd  ed.,  New  York,  1904. 
Merkel,  R.,  Prolegomena  to  his  edition  of  Ovid's  Fasti,  Berlin, 

1841. 
Neue-Wagener,  Formenlehre  der  lateinischen  Sprache,  3rd  ed., 

Leipzig,  1902 ;  cited  Neue-Wagener. 
Overbeck-Mau,  Pompeii,  4th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1884. 
Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Hncyclopddie  der  classischen  Altertumswis- 

senschaft;  cited  Paul.-Wiss. 
Peter,  Hermann,  Ovid  Fasten  I,  4th  ed.,  text  and  commentary, 

Leipzig,  1907. 


.,.3 

Peter,  Hermann,  Ovid  Fasten  II,  critical  notes,  3rd  ed.,  Leipzig, 

1889. 
Platner,  Topography  and  Monuments  of  Ancient  Rome,  2nd  ed., 

Boston,  1911. 
Schanz,  Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteratur,  3rd  ed.,  1907-1913, 

in  Ivan  von  Miiller's  Handbuch  der  klassischen  Altertums- 

wissenschaft ;  cited  Schanz. 
Smith,  A  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities,  3rd  ed., 

London,  1891. 
Teuffel  and  Schwabe,  History  of  Roman  Literature,  translation 

from  the  fifth  German  edition  by  George  C.  W.  Warr,  Lon- 
don, 1891. 

Thesaurus  Linguae  Latinae,  Leipzig ;  cited  Thesaurus. 
Van  Deman,  Esther  Boise,  The  Atrium  Vestae,  Washington,  D. 

C.,  Carnegie  Institution,  1909. 
Wissowa,  Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer,  in  Ivan  von  Miiller's 

Handbuch  der  klassischen  Altertumswissenschaft,   Munich, 

1912;  cited  Wiss. 

The  editions  cited  of  the  following  authors,  unless  otherwise 
stated  in  the  text,  are : 

Festus  and  Paulus  Diaconus,  O.  Miiller,  Leipzig,  1889. 
Gellius,  Teubner  text,  Leipzig,  1903. 
Macrobius,  Teubner  text,  Leipzig,  1893. 
Varro,  de  Lingua  Latina,  Goetz  and  Schoell,  Leipzig,  1910. 


THE  SCENE  OF  THE  SACRA  IDULIA. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  sacrifices  mentioned  in  Ovid's 
Fasti,  and  one  which  presents  some  of  the  knottiest  problems,  is 
that  of  the  ovis  Idulis,1  or  sheep  sacrificed  on  the  Ides  of  every 
month  to  Jupiter  by  the  Flamen  Dialis.2  Where  was  this  cere- 
mony performed?  Ovid  (Fasti  I  587-88)  says, 

"Idibus  in  magnfcastus  lovis  aede  sacerdos 
Semimaris  flammis  viscera  libat  ovis." 

According  to  him,  then,  the  burnt  offering  was  made  in  an  aedes 
of  Jupiter.  Before  turning  to  the  question  of  what  aedes  is 
meant,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  discuss  on  what  part  of  the  sacred 
premises  the  Romans  were  accustomed  to  slay  a  victim  and  burn 
its  exta,  the  portion  offered  to  the  god ;  in  other  words,  whether 
Ovid's  phrase  in  aede  be  ritualistically  correct. 

The  Latin  in  with  the  ablative  covers  the  meaning  of  both  "in" 
and  "on"  in  English.  Now  while  mention  is  made  again  and  again 
in  the  Ada  Fratrum  Arvalium  of  the  immolatio  or  slaying  of 
victims  in  Capitolio,*  the  phrase  means  "on"  the  Capitoline, 
rather  than  in  the  temple  of  the  Triad ;  for  we  have  a  passage4  "in 
Capitolio . .  in  tem[plo  lovis  optimi  maximi?  fratres  Arvales] 
Iov[i]  o(ptimo)  m(aximo)  bovem  marem  immolarunt,"  where  the 
distinction  is  clearly  drawn  between  the  hill  and  the  temple.  More- 
over, the  words  in  templo  are  extraordinary,  for  in  turning  over 
page  after  page  of  the  Acta  we  continually  read  of  sacrifice  to 
Jupiter  in  Capitolio,  but  here  only  is  the  temple  distinctly 
specified.  Even  more  illuminating  is  the  immolation  "in  templo 
novo  divo  Aug(usto)"  of  a  bos  mas,*  for  on  another  page  we 


1  Fasti  I,  56;  Macrob.  I,  15,  16;  Paul.  104,  17. 

*  Macrob.  I,  15,  16;  F.  I,  587-88. 

*  Henzen,  Act.  Fr.  Aru.,  p.  XXXVI,  p.  XLIII  et  al.    The  parenthesis 
indicates  the  filling  out  of  an  abbreviation,  and  the  bracket  a  break  in  the 
original  inscription. 

4  Henzen,  Act.  Fr.  Aru.,  p.  CXXIL 
'  Henzen,  Act.  Fr.  Aru.,  p.  LXIX, 


10 

meet  with  the  sacrifice  to  Divtis  Augustus  ad  templum  novum* 
and  again  the  words,  "an[te  templum  novum  divo  Augusto 
bovem]  marem  et  div[ae  Augustae  vaccam  i]mmolavit."T 

At  once  the  question  arises,  what  is  meant  by  templum.  The 
author  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities3  in  discussing  Augus- 
tus* use  of  the  two  words  templum  and  aedes  in  the  Monumentum 
Ancyranum  19,  20,  and  21,  makes  the  following  observation: 

"It  seems  to  us  a  truer  view  that  the  use  of  templum  for  aedes 
was  coming  in  before  the  end  of  the  Republic,  and  that  Augustus 
in  speaking  by  name  of  pre-existing  temples,  uses  the  term  which 
originally  described  them,  but  in  those  which  he  has  just  built 
uses  the  term  now  in  vogue." 

Vitruvius  throws  some  light  on  the  word,  in  III,  4,  4: 

"Gradus  in  f  ronte  constituendi  ita  sunt  uti  sint  semper  inpares. 
Namque  cum  dextro  pede  primus  gradus  ascendatur,  item  in 
summo  templo  primus  erit  ponendus." 

This  is  translated  by  Morris  Hicky  Morgan  as  follows : 

"The  steps  in  front  must  be  arranged  so  that  there  shall  always 
be  an  odd  number  of  them ;  for  thus  the  right  foot,  with  which 
one  mounts  the  first  step,  will  also  be  the  first  to  reach  the  level 
of  the  temple  itself." 

The  writer  of  the  article  on  templum  in  Daremberg  et  Saglio's 
Dictionaire  des  antiquites  grecques  et  romaines9  thus  comments 
on  the  passage: 

"Un  passage  de  cet  auteur  semblerait  meme  montrer  que  ce 
terme,  en  architecture  religieuse,  indiquait  seulement  1'aire  sur 
laquelle  s'elevaient  les  murs  et  les  colonnes  de  Tedifice ;  la  surface 
superieure  du  podium  est  pour  lui  le  summum  templum" 

This  view  seems  correct,  namely,  that  Vitruvius  means  by 
summum  templum  the  upper  surface  of  the  podium,  the  area 
on  which  the  walls  and  colonnade  rested,  and  upon  which  one 
stepped  on  reaching  the  head  of  the  stairway.  Templum  would 
then  be  identical  with  podium.  This  is  a  strict  interpretation  of 
the  passage,  but,  by  a  natural  extension,  templum  would  include 
not  only  the  summum  templum  or  upper  surface,  but  the  walls 


9  Act.  Fr.  Arv.,  p.  XLVIII,  a.  39. 
'  Act.  Fr.  Arv.,  p.  LXIII,  a.  57. 
'  Vol.  II,  p.  773. 
•p.  107. 


11 

and  colonnade  which  surrounded  it,  and  any  sacrifice  performed 
in  templo  would  probably  have  been  offered  in  the  cella  or  in  the 
portico.  In  buildings  of  the  Maison  Carree  type,  however,  a  strict 
interpretation  of  the  word  templum  would  include  also  the  steps 
cut  in  the  podium  and  leading  to  the  upper  surface.10 

Varro11  and  Granius  Licinianus,  quoted  by  Macrobius,12  tell  of 
the  immolation  of  victims  "in"  the  Regia,  and  in  the  foundations  of 
a  temple  excavated  at  Alatri  are  traces  of  an  altar  in  the  pronaos.13 
The  mere  fact,  however,  that  the  preposition  in  is  employed  only 
in  rare  instances  would  indicate  that  the  place  of  sacrifice  was 
unusual,  and  especially  is  this  seen  in  the  contrast  above  noted  in 
the  A  eta  Fratrum  Arvalium  between  in  templo  and  in  Capitolio. 
In  the  three  sacrifices  to  Augustus  we  have  in,  ad,  and  ante 
templum  novum.  Ad  and  ante  appear  to  mean  about  the 
same  thing,  and  must  be  references  to  immolation  outside 
the  templum  proper  and  in  front  of  the  steps  leading  up  the 
podium  to  the  portico.  One  more  passage  from  the  A  eta  Fratrum 
Arvalium  must  be  quoted:  "in  Capitolio  ante  cellam  lunonis 
reg(inae) .  .fratres  Arvales  convenerunt  et  immolaverunt . . 
I(ovi)  o(ptimo)  m(aximo)  b(ovem)  m(arem)  a(uratum), 
lunoni  reg(inae)  b(ovem)  f(eminam)  a  (uratam),  Minervae 
b(ovem)  f(eminam)  a  (uratam).14  Here,  whether  ante  cellam 
lunonis  reginae  implies  in  the  portico,  on  the  steps  of  the  podium, 
or  in  front  of  the  steps,  it  is  alike  definitely  stated  that  the  sacri- 
fice was  not  inside  the  cella. 


"See  Mau-Kelsey,  Pompeii,  pp.  49,  64,  131;  Overbeck-Mau  Pompeii, 
pp.  69,  70,  115,  116;  Huelsen-Carter  Roman  Forum,  pp.  90,  149;  H.  B. 
Walters  The  Art  of  the  Romans,  plate  IX.  For  steps  outside  the  podium 
and  merely  attached  to  it  compare  Mau-Kelsey,  pp.  86,  173;  Overbeck-Mau, 
96;  etc.  Can  it  be  possible  that  the  references  recording  a  sacrifice  in 
templo  refer  to  such  offering  at  an  altar  on  the  steps  and  naturally  included, 
according  to  the  stricter  interpretation  of  Vitruvius,  in  the  templum ? 
The  architecture  of  the  Regia  (for  the  immolation  of  victims  in  regia 
see  notes  11  and  12)  and  the  fact  that  at  Alatri  the  traces  discovered  of 
an  altar  were  in  the  pronaos  (cf.  n.  13),  would  be  against  such  a  view, 
as  is  also  the  construction  of  those  temples  whose  steps  are  outside  the 
podium  and  whose  altars  stand  in  front  of  the  steps. 

11 L.  L.  VI,  12. 

a  Macrob.  I,  16,  30. 

u  Rom.  Mitt.  IV,  144;  VI,  350. 

"Act.  Fr.  Arv.,  p.  CXCVII,  a.  213. 


12 

The  very  construction,  however,  of  a  Roman  temple,  standing 
as  it  did  on  a  lofty  podium  and  reached  by  a  flight  of  steps,  con- 
stitutes a  natural  obstacle  to  the  immolation  of  larger  animals 
either  in  the  cella  or  in  the  portico.  Roman  reliefs15  and  the 
miniatures  of  the  Codex  Vaticanus  3225  of  Vergil,  a  manu- 
script in  rustic  capitals,18  represent  the  victim  as  being  slain,  or 
about  to  be  slain,  at  an  altar  in  front  of  the  temple,  and  at 
Pompeii  there  still  exists  a  number  of  such  altars,  placed  either 
in  front  of  the  steps  or  on  one  of  the  lower  rounds,17  while  altars 
of  this  nature  have  not  been  discovered  either  in  the  portico  or  in 
the  cella. 

But  Ovid's  passage  does  not  discuss  the  slaying  of  the 
victim.  It  merely  says  that  the  exta  (viscera)  were  burned  in 
the  aedes  of  great  Jupiter.18  Did  the  slaying,  then,  take  place 
outside  and  the  burning  of  the  exta  within?  In  such  of  the 
reliefs  as  portray  the  actual  killing  of  the  animal  the  act  is  not 
being  performed  on  the  altar  but  beside  it.  True,  the  victim 
here  shown  is  a  bull,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
procedure  was  otherwise  in  the  case  of  sheep  or  swine.19  Fur- 
thermore, the  miniature  in  a  Vatican  MS.  of  Vergil  which  shows 
an  altar  on  one  of  the  lowest  steps  of  the  podium,  displays  a 
fire  burning  on  the  altar.20  The  altars  outside  cella  and  por- 


"  Relief  in  the  Conservator!  of  Marcus  Aurelius  sacrificing  before  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  (see  Brunn-Bruckmann,  plate  269)  ; 
relief  on  an  altar  in  front  of  the  temple  of  Vespasian  at  Pompeii  (see  Mau- 
Kelsey,  p.  107);  Clarac,  Musee  de  Sculpture,  plates  218,  310;  reliefs  on 
the  columns  of  Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius  (see  Cichorius,  plates  10, 
38,  62,  63,  66,  72,  76,  and  Petersen-v.  Domaszewski-Calderini,  plates  13A, 
38B).  The  relief  on  the  silver  cup  from  Boscoreale  in  the  cabinet  of 
Baron  Edmund  Rothschild  (see  Monum.  Piot.  V,  plates  34-36). 

18  Published  in  Rome.  Officina  Danesi,  Via  di  Bagni  1899,  illustrations 
13,  18,  22   (all  three  giving  the  altar  at  the  foot  of  the  steps),  and  31 
(giving  the  altar  on  the  bottom  rounds). 

"  See  Mau-Kelsey,  pp.  64,  83,  86,  108,  125,  166,  167,  171 ;  Overbeck-Mau, 
pp.  71,  95,  111,  115,  117;  cf.  also  the  altar  on  a  lower  round  of  the  steps 
of  the  temple  in  a  miniature  of  a  Vatican  MS.  of  Vergil  (see  Daremberg 
et  Saglio,  figure  409,  p.  348  under  arc). 

"I,  587-8. 

19  Cf.  Arist.  Peace,  1017  sqq.,  and  the  picture  in  Daremberg  et  Saglio 
under  ara,  fig.  417,  p.  349. 

20  Daremberg  et  Saglio  under  ara,  fig.  409,  p.  348.    Unfortunately  they 
fail  to  give  the  number  of  the  MS. 


13 

tico,  therefore,  cannot  be  explained  on  any  theory  that  they  were 
used  for  the  slaying  of  the  victims.  The  exta  must  have  been 
burned  upon  them.  Reisch,  the  author  of  the  article  on  altars  in 
Pauly-Wissowa's  Realencyclopadie,  when  noting  that  in  the  Greek 
ritual  there  are  but  isolated  examples  of  animal  sacrifices  in  the 
temples,  makes  the  practical  observation  that  it  would  have  been 
damaging  to  the  cult  images  and  the  costly  votive  offerings,  had 
fat  and  flesh  been  regularly  burned  in  the  poorly  ventilated  cella.21 
The  same  criticism  would  apply  to  Roman  worship. 

The  conclusion  is,  therefore,  that  the  usual  custom  in  animal 
sacrifices  was  to  slay  the  victim  and  burn  its  exta  outside  the  cella 
and  portico  *of  the  temple,  and,  if  Ovid's  words  in  lovis  aede 
refer  to  cella  or  portico,  the  ceremony  of  the  Ides  was  either 
different  in  this  regard  from  the  usual  practise28  or  the  poet  has 
not  represented  it  correctly.  Metrical  reasons  demand  in  aede 
rather  than  ad  aedem.  Let  us  see  now  whether  the  poet  has 
informed  us  correctly.28 

I. 

To  what  temple  of  Jupiter  does  Ovid  refer  when  he  says  in 
magni  lovis  aede?  The  thought  at  once  arises  of  the  great  tem- 
ple of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  on  the  Capitoline,  seat  of  the 
most  important  cult  of  Jupiter  in  the  Roman  world,  yet  the  epi- 
thet magni,  though  applied  to  this  divinity  in  Ex  Ponto,  IV,  9, 
29-32,  proves  nothing,  for  the  poet  elsewhere  confers  it  on  Jupiter 
as  a  mere  epithet.24  Now,  as  will  presently  be  pointed  out,  the 


*  Under  Altar,  p.  1650. 

33  But  cf.  in  regia  Varro  L.  L.,  VI,  12  and  Macrob.  I,  16,  30. 

*  In  any  case,  whether  Ovid's  expression  be  true  or  untrue  of  this 
particular  ceremony,  we  have  seen  that  instances  do  exist  of  the  per- 
formance of  sacrifice  in  tentplo,  on  one  occasion  even  in  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus.    Ovid's  words,  therefore,  seem  to  me  a  note- 
worthy bit  of  evidence  in  support  of  those  references  which  reveal  sacrifice 
in  aede  on  certain  occasions.    It  is  doubtful  if  even  his  carelessness  and 
poetic  license  would  have  misrepresented  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and 
widely  recognized  customs  of  Roman  ritual,  had  he  not  been  aware  that 
the  rule  allowed  occasional  exceptions. 

24  Tristia  III,  I,  33-38,  describing  the  house  of  Caesar  on  the  Palatine: 
"Singula  dum  miror,  video  fulgentibus  armis 

Conspicuos  postes  tectaque  digna  deo. 
'Et  lovis  haec  'dixi  'domus  est'?    Quod  ut  esse  putarem, 

Augurium  mend  querna  corona  dabat. 
Cuius  ut  accepi  dominum,  'non  fallimur',  inquam, 
'Et  magni  verum  est  hanc  lovis  esse  domum'." 
Fasti  V,  40,  of  the  Gigantomachia :  "magnum  bello  sollicitare  lovem." 


14 

priest  who  performed  the  sacrifice  on  the  Ides  was  the  Flamen 
Dialis,25  and  it  seems  to  me  that  W.  Warde  Fowler26  is  justified 
in  his  assumption  that  this  priest  had  no  special  connection  with 
the  temple  of  Optimus  Maximus,  which  was  under  the  charge 
of  an  aedituus.  Professor  Fowler  is  arguing  from  the  absence 
of  all  evidence  to  connect  the  Flamen  with  this  cult  and  from 
his  extreme  antiquity  in  Latin  religious  history.27  The  two  great 
festivals  of  Jupiter  at  which  he  is  known  to  have  officiated, 
namely,  the  auspicatio  vindemiae  and  the  sacra  Idulia,  were 
celebrated  to  Jupiter  the  great  Indo-European  sky-god,  in  whose 
control  of  the  weather  lay  the  possibility  of  a  successful 
vintage  ;28  to  whom  all  Ides,  the  period  of  the  full  moon,  were 
sacred;29  and  who  is  hailed  by  the  Salii  in  their  hymn  as 
Lucetius,  the  giver  or  source  of  light.30  The  cult  of  Optimus 
Maximus,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  arrive  in  Rome  until 
late  in  the  history  of  the  kingship,  was  of  Etruscan  origin, 
and  was  distinctly  political,  a  character  which  it  always  pre- 
served.31 Professor  Fowler32  seems  inclined  to  reject  the  Flamen 
Dialis  as  the  officiating  priest  on  the  Ides,33  and  at  any  rate 
continues  to  place  the  seat  of  this  sacrifice  on  the  Capitolium. 


K  Macrob  I,  15,  16:  "quam  (ovem  Idulem)  hoc  nomine  vocant  Tusci 
et  omnibus  Idibus  lovi  immolatur  a  flamine";  Ov.  Fasti  I,  587-8,  "castus 
.  .  .  sacerdos". 

*  R.  E.  R.  P.,  p.  239  and  n.  41. 

*  R.  E.  R.  P.,  pp.  128  and  239.    The  origin  of  his  office  is  ascribed  to 
Numa  by  Ennius  ap.  Varro,  L.  L.,  VII,  45  and  Liv.  I,  20,  1-2. 

88  Fowler,  R.  F.,  pp.  85-8. 

w  Macrob.  I,  15,  15 :  "lure  hie  dies  lovis  fiducia  vocatur,  ctrius  lux  non 
finitur  cum  solis  occasu,  sed  splendorem  diei  et  noctem  continual  inlu- 
strante  luna,  quod  semper  in  plenilunio,  id  est  medio  mense,  fieri  solet"; 
18:  "Ut  autem  Idus  omnes  lovi  ita  Kalendas  lunoni  tributas  et  Varronis 
et  pontificalis  adfirmat  auctoritas." 

"Macrob.  I,  15,  14:  "Nam  cum  lovem  accipiamus  lucis  auctorem,  unde 
et  Lucetium  Salii  in  carminibus  canunt";  Wissowa,  p.  114  and  notes  2 
and  3.  Fowler,  R.  E.  R.  P.,  p.  129. 

"Fowler,  R.  E.  R.  P.,  pp.  129,  237-9;  Dionys.  Ill,  69;  IV,  59;  Liv.  I, 
38,  7;  Plut.  Poplicola  XIII;  XIV. 

"R.  E.  R.  P.,  p.  239,  n.  41  and  n.  38  to  p.  129. 

*  He  cites  the  use  of  Sacerdotes  by  Festus,  p.  290  ("eo  itinere  utantur 
sacerdotes  idulium  sacrorum  conficiendorum  causa")  and  does  not  appear 
to  consider  castus  sacerdos  (F.  I.  587)  a  reference  to  the  Flamen.     Cf. 
what  he  says   (n.  38  to  p.  129)  on  Hor.  C.  Ill,  30,  8:  "dum  Capitolium 
scandet  cum  tacita  virgine  pontifex".    There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
this  last  passage  refers  to  the  sacrifice  on  the  Ides. 


15 

As  both  Ovid34  and  Macrobius,35  however,  tell  us  that  it  was 
offered  to  Jupiter,  and  Macrobius  says  a  flamine,  it  appears 
obviously  impossible  that  any  other  flamen  or  priest  of  any  sort 
than  that  of  Jupiter  can  be  intended,  especially  as  Ovid's  epithet 
castus  sacerdos  expressly  fits  the  character  of  the  Flamen 
Dialis.  I  fully  agree  then  with  Professor  Fowler  in  his  hypo- 
thesis that  the  Flamen  Dialis,  because  of  his  extreme  antiquity  in 
Latin  religious  history  and  his  superintendence  over  the  rites  of 
the  primitive  Indo-European  sky-god,  can  have  had  no  special 
connection  with  Optintus  Maximus,  because  this  Jupiter  was 
political  and  a  late  importation  from  Etruria.  It  is  thus  impos- 
sible for  the  sacra  Idulia  to  have  been  offered  both  at  this  temple 
and  by  this  priest.  I  cannot,  however,  reject  the  priest,  for  the 
passages  above  noted  from  Ovid  and  Macrobius  are  too  con- 
clusive in  support  of  his  connection  with  the  sacra  Idulia.  I 
must,  therefore,  reject  the  temple,  for  the  words  in  magni  lovis 
aede  are  by  no  means  a  certain  reference  to  the  aedes  of  the 
great  political  god,  any  more  than  to  one  of  the  other  Jupiter 
cults  in  Rome.88 


"Fasti  I,  56;   587-S. 

"I,  IS,  16  (see  n.  25  above). 

MI  cannot  see  how  the  Etruscan  etymology  which  Macrobius  gives  for 
the  words  "Ides"  and  ovis  Idulis  can  be  used  as  an  argument  against  the 
genuinely  Latin  origin  of  the  Roman  festival.  Even  if  his  etymology 
be  correct,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  worship  of  the  sky-god 
on  the  day  of  the  full  moon  can  easily  have  antedated  any  name  that 
later  crept  into  the  calendar  for  that  day.  Macrob.  I,  15,  14:  Iduum 
porro  nomen  a  Tuscis,  apud  quos  is  dies  Itis  vocatur,  sumptum  est. 
Item  autem  illi  interpretantur  lovis  fiduciam,  nam  cum  lovem  accipiamus 
lucis  auctorem  .  .  .  iure  hie  dies  lovis  fiducia  vocatur,  cuius  lux  non 
finitur  cum  solis  occasu,  sed  splendorem  diei  et  noctem  continuat  in- 
lustrante  luna ;  .  .  .  diem  igitur  qui  vel  nocturnis  caret  tenebris  lovis 
fiduciam  Tusco  nomine  vocaverunt;  unde  et  omnes  Idus  lovis  ferias 
observandas  sanxit  antiquitas";  and  I,  15,  16:  "quam  (ovem  Idulem) 
hoc  nomine  vocant  Tusci".  A  parallel  rite  may  well  have  existed  among 
the  Etruscans,  but  it  seems  very  improbable  that  the  word  "Ides"  was 
derived  from  the  Etruscan.  Varro  (L.  L.,  VI,  28),  says:  "Idus  ab  eo 
quod  Tusci  itus  vel  potius  quod  Sabini  idus  dicunt".  Corssen  (Uber  die 
Sprache  der  Etrusker,  Vol.  II,  pp.  237-238),  gives  a  number  of  corre- 
sponding roots  from  the  Indo-Germanic  languages,  all  containing  the  idea 
of  brightness  or  heavenly  light.  Cf.  Walde  (Lateinisches  etymologischts 
Worterbuch,  p.  375). 


II. 

We  must  now  consider  two  passages  of  vital  importance  in 
determining  the  scene  of  the  sacrifice.  Festus  (p.  290,  Muller's 
edition)  and  Varro  (L.  L.,  V,  47)  both  say  that  the  procession 
of  priests  passed  along  the  Sacra  Via  in  this  festival.  Festus' 
words  are : 

"Sacram  viam  quidam  appellatam  esse  existimant . .  quod  eo 
itinere  utantur  sacerdotes  idulium  sacrorum  conficiendorum 
causa,  itaque  ne  eatenus  quidem,  ut  vulgus  opinatur,  sacra  appel- 
landa  est  a  regia  ad  domum  Regis  sacrificuli,  sed  etiam  a  Regis 
domo  ad  sacellum  Streniae,  et  rusus  a  regia  usque  in  arcem." 
"Some  persons  believe  that  the  Sacred  Way  is  so  called  because 
the  priests  use  that  street  in  performing  the  sacra  Idulia.  There- 
fore, it  must  be  named  Sacra,  not  only,  as  is  commonly  supposed, 
from  the  Regia  to  the  house  of  the  Rex  Sacrificulus,  but  likewise 
from  the  house  of  the  Rex  to  the  shrine  of  Strenia,  and  back 
from  the  Regia  all  the  way  to  the  Arx." 

The  use  of  itaque,  meaning  "therefore,"  as  well  as  the  state- 
ment which  it  introduces,  show  that  Festus  means  that  the  pro- 
cession passed  along  the  entire  length  of  the  Sacra  Via  and  that 
thus  the  name  should  be  applied  to  the  whole  street  from  the 
sacellum  of  Strenia  near  the  Colosseum  and  the  Cannae,  which 
lay  south  of  the  modern  Via  Cavour  along  the  Via  dei  Serpenti, 
as  far  as  the  Arx.37  Varro  says: 

"Carinae  postea  cerionia,  quod  hinc  oritur  caput  sacrae  viae 
ab  Streniae  sacello  quae  pertinet  in  arce(m)  qua  sacra  quotquot 
mensibus  feruntur  in  arcem  et  per  quam  augures  ex  arce  profecti 
solent  inaugurare." 

"Carinae  afterwards  cerionia  (the  spelling  is  corrupt),  because 
at  this  point  the  Sacred  Way  begins,  from  the  shrine  of  Strenia, 


"  See  Jordan  I,  3,  pp.  258-259,  262-263,  and  maps;  Kiepert  and  Huelsen, 
Forma  Urbis  Romae  Antiquae,  2nd.  ed.  maps. 

16 


17 

and  extends  to  the  Arx.  By  the  Sacred  Way  sacra  are  carried 
every  month  to  the  Arx  and  along  it  the  augurs,  having  started 
from  the  Arx,  are  accustomed  to  take  omens." 

Against  this  last  quotation  it  may  be  argued  that  the  words 
"sacra  quotquot  mensibus  feruntur  in  arcem"  are  indefinite,  and 
might  apply  to  some  other  sacra  than  the  Idulia,  but  we  know  of 
no  other  monthly  festival  which  included  a  procession  along  the 
Sacred  Way  to  the  Arx,  and  Festus'  passage  expressly  states  that 
this  procession  took  place  on  the  Ides.  The  offering  must  then 
have  been  made  at  some  point  along  the  Sacred  Way,  if  not  on  the 
Arx  itself,  on  which  the  Sacrjed  Way  terminated. 


III. 

But  Ovid's  words  are  in  lovis  aede,  and  no  temple  of  Jupiter 
is  known  to  have  stood  on  the  Arx.  O.  Gilbert  (Geschichte  und 
Topographic  der  Stadt  Rom,  pp.  236-237)  conjectured  that  the 
aedes  was  that  of  Jupiter  Stator  on  the  summa  sacra  via*8  and 
near  the  arch  of  Titus.  The  same  objections,  however,  apply  to 
this  cult  as  to  that  of  Optimus  Maximus.  Jupiter  Stator  was 
not  the  sky-god  but  a  military  Jupiter,  and  his  temple  was  vowed 
in  the  third  Samnite  war  and  dedicated  shortly  afterward,  long 
after  that  of  the  great  god  of  the  Capitol.89  The  passages  in  the 
first  book  of  Livy  (I,  12)  and  Ovid  (Fasti  VI,  793),  which 
represent  this  temple  as  vowed  by  Romulus,  appear  to  be  purely 
literary  tradition,  for  the  promise  is  that  of  a  templum,™  and 
none  could  have  been  erected  before  294  B.  C.  or  the  consul 
would  not  have  made  the  vow  when  his  army  was  retreating 
before  the  Samnites.  Livy  attempts  to  reconcile  his  later  account 
with  the  earlier  by  stating  in  Book  X  (37,  14-16),  that  Romulus 
had  vowed  only  a  fanum*1  but  the  contradiction  none  the  less 


88  Jordan  I,  3,  pp.  20-23. 

"Liv.  X,  36,  11;   Wiss.,  p.  122,  and  notes  8  and  9. 


40  Liv.  I,  12:  "Hie  ego  tibi  templum  Statori  lovi,  quod  monumentum 
sit  posteris  tua  praesenti  ope  servatam  urbem  esse,  voveo". 

1  "In  ea  pugna  lovis  Statoris  aedem  votam,  ut  Romulus  ante  voverat ; 
sed  fanum  tantum,  id  est  locus  templo  effatus  (sacratus),  fuerat.  Ceterum 
hoc  demum  anno,  ut  aedem  etiam  fieri  senatus  iuberet,  bis  eiusdem  voti 
damnata  re  publica,  in  religionem  venit". 


18 

remains,  and  the  application  of  the  title  Optimus  Maximus  to 
Jupiter  Stator  in  Livy's  first  passage42  is  still  further  proof  of 
the  careless  and  purely  literary  character  of  Livy's  account. 
There  is  as  good  reason,  therefore,  to  reject  the  Stator  temple 
as  the  scene  of  the  sacra  Idulia  as  that  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maxi- 
mus; for  the  Stator  cult  was  still  later,  and  for  this  reason,  and 
also  because  of  its  military  character,  was  no  more  the  cult  of  the 
primitive  sky-god  than  was  that  of  Optimus  Maximus,  nor  could 
it  have  been  in  the  hands  of  so  ancient  a  religious  personage  as 
the  Flamen  Dialis.48 


IV. 

Now  there  was  another  religious  edifice  on  the  Sacra  Via, 
against  which  the  objections  above  mentioned  do  not  hold  good. 
The  Regia44  goes  back  to  the  hoary  beginnings  of  a  community 
about  the  Forum  valley  on  the  adjacent  hills,  and  was,  as 
the  name  implies,  first  the  house  of  the  king.45  Tradition 
describes  it  as  the  abode  of  Numa,  or  at  least  the  place  where 
he  discharged  his  priestly  functions.48  Later  on  it  became  the 
central  point  of  the  activities  of  the  college  of  pontifices  and  the 
official  headquarters  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  upon  whom  most 
of  the  religious  functions  of  the  king  devolved  after  the  fall  of 


"I,  12:   "Haec  precatus,  velut  si  sensisset  auditas  preces,  'hinc',  inquit, 
'Romani,  luppiter  optimus  maximus  resistere  atque  iterare  pugnam  iubet." 

43  The  article  on  Jupiter  in  Daremberg  et  Saglio   (p.  711)   states  that 
the  quindecemviri  sacris  faciundis  had   charge  of   the  cult  of   Jupiter 
Stator:   "Le  culte  de  Jupiter  Stator  etait  celebre  sous  la  surveillance  des 
Quindecemvirs".    The  value  of  the  statement  is  unhappily  weakened  by 
the  absence  of  any  reference  to  substantiate  it.    If  it  be  so,  however,  it 
furnishes  weighty  additional  testimony  against  the  Stator  temple  as  the 
scene  of  the  sacra  Idulia;  for  these  priests  were  of  later  origin  than  the 
other  Roman  sacerdotal  colleges   (see  Wiss.,  p.  534),  had  charge  of  the 
Sibylline  Books    (Wiss.,  p.  536),  and  probably  a  superintendence  over 
foreign  rites  whose  importation  these  oracles  had  directed,  and  did  not 
include  any  flamen  among  their  number  (Wiss.,  pp.  542-3). 

44  Jordan  I,  2,  pp.  302-4;   Wiss.,  p.  502. 

"Festus,  p.  279:  "Regia  domus  ubi  rex  habitat."  Cf.  Wiss.,  p.  502,  and 
Jordan  I,  2,  pp.  423-9. 
"Solin.  I,  21;    Plut.  Numa  XIV;   Tac.  Ann.  XV,  41. 


19 

the  monarchy.47  Here  at  the  appropriate  festivals  offerings  were 
made  to  certain  of  the  oldest  Roman  divinities,48  and  here  on  all 
Nundinae  or  market  days,  says  Granius  Licinianus,49  the  Flam- 
inica  Dialis  sacrificed  a  ram  to  Jupiter  himself.  This  sacrifice 
by  the  wife  of  the  Flamen  Dialis  on  the  market-days  is  comparable 
to  that  by  her  husband  on  the  Ides ;  and  the  Regia  alone,  therefore, 
of  any  sacred  edifice  yet  known  along  the  Sacra  Via  or  at  its 
terminus  can  be  conceived  of  as  the  scene  of  the  sacra  Idulia. 

But  Varro  says  that  the  sacra  of  the  Ides  were  carried  to  the 
Arx.50  His  words  are  "sacra  quotquot  mensibus  feruntur  in 
arcem."  This  statement  fronvsuch  an  authority  as  Varro  would 
at  once  settle  the  question  of  the  scene  of  the  sacrifice,  were  it  not 
for  Ovid's  words  in  magni  lovis  aede,  for,  as  mentioned  above, 
no  aedes  of  Jupiter  is  known  to  have  stood  on  the  Arx.  Ovid, 
however,  does  not  speak  of  the  immolatio,  but  only  mentions  the 
burning  of  the  exta. 

Can  it  be,  then,  that  the  victim  was  led  in  procession  along  the 
Sacra  Via  to  the  Arx  and  there  slain,  but  its  exta  afterwards  car- 
ried back  to  the  Regia  and  offered  in  a  chapel  of  Jupiter  in  that 
building?  We  know  of  two  parallels  which  might  justify  such  a 
theory.  The  first  is  that  of  the  dog  and  sheep  of  the  Robigalia, 
which  were  slain  in  Rome  in  the  morning  and  whose  exta  were 
later  offered  to  Robigus  in  the  grove  of  that  deity  at  the  fifth 
milestone  on  the  Via  Claudia,  whither  they  had  been  borne  in 
solemn  procession.51  The  second  example  is  connected  with  the 
Regia  itself :  the  tail  of  the  horse  sacrificed  to  Mars  in  the  Campus 
Martius  on  the  Ides  of  October  was  carried  with  all  possible  speed 
to  the  Regia  and  the  blood  allowed  to  drip  on  its  hearth.52  Mars 
indeed  appears  to  have  held  a  very  prominent  position  in  the  cults 


4fWiss.,  p.  502;    Huelsen-Carter,  The  Roman  Forum,  p.  193. 

48  To  Ops  Consiva  in  her  own  chapel  in  the  Regia  (CIL.  I1,  p.  327; 
Varro,  L.  L.  VI,  21);  to  Juno  on  the  Kalends  by  the  Regina  sacrorum 
(Macrob.  I,,  15,  19)  ;  to  Janus  on  the  Agonium  by  the  Rex  sacrorum 
(Varro,  L.  L.  VI,  12) ;  etc. 

*Ap.  Macrob.  I,  16,  30:  "Flaminica  omnibus  nundinis  in  regia  lovi 
arietem  soleat  immolare". 

ML.  L.  V.47  (see  above). 

61  Ov.  F.  IV,  907-36;  Fasti  Praenestini  on  Apr.  25  (CIL.  P,  p.  316): 
Fowler,  R.  F.,  p.  89. 

"  Festus,  p.  178;  Fowler,  R.  F.,  pp.  241-2. 


20 

of  the  Regia.  It  was  here  that  his  sacred  spears  were  kept,53  and 
Jordan  even  goes  so  far  as  to  assume  that  he  was  the  protecting 
deity  of  the  place.54  However  this  may  be,  Ovid's  expression 
in  magni  lovis  aede  is  a  curious  term  in  view  of  the  nature  of 
the  building  and  the  variety  of  divinities  there  worshipped,  and 
perhaps  we  have  already  sufficient  reason  for  concluding  that  the 
Regia  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  sacra  Idulia.  But 
before  convicting  Ovid  of  making  so  gross  an  error  as  saying  that 
the  offering  was  burned  at  an  aedes,  if  the  entire  ceremony  really 
took  place  out-of-doors,  I  should  like  to  present  an  elaborate  mass 
of  testimony  based  on  two  lines  of  the  Fasti  themselves.  In  II, 
69-70,  Ovid  is  discussing  sacrifices  made  on  February  1  at  three 
places.  The  lines  are : 

"Ad  penetrale  Numae  Capitolinumque  Tonantem 

Inque  lovis  summa  caeditur  arce  bidens." 
I  shall  first  enter  into  a  rather  lengthy  discussion  to  prove 
penetrale  Numae  equal  to  "Regia." 


V. 

H.  Peter  in  his  edition  of  the  Fasti*5  understands  penetrale 
Numae  as  a  reference  to  the  Atrium   Vestae  in  its   restricted 
sense,  the  building  utilized  as  the  dwelling  of  the  Vestals ;  for  he 
interprets  Fasti  VI,  263-4,  as  meaning  that  Numa  lived  in  the 
Dvmus  Vestalium  and  not  in  the  Regia.    The  words  are: 
"Hie  locus  exiguus  qui  sustinet  atria  Vestae 
Tune  erat  intonsi  regia  magna  Numae." 

Regia  he  takes  in  the  general  sense  of  "palace." 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  Romans  employed 
the  terms  Atrium  Vestae  and  Regia  interchangeably,  and  even  that 
the  two  were  at  the  outset  parts  of  one  and  the  same  building. 
Let  us  examine  the  evidence  set  forth  by  Dr.  Esther  Boise  Van 
Deman  in  her  monograph,  The  Atrium  Vestae. 

The  architectural  history  of  the  Atrium  of  the  Republic 
"extends  from  the  early  republican  or  even  the  regal  period  to  that 


"Cell.  IV,  6;  Wiss.,  p.  502  and  n.  5. 

-1,2,  pp.  424-5. 

"  Notes  on  II,  69  and  VI,  257  sqq. ;  also  critical  note  on  VI,  263  sqq. 


21 

of  the  early  empire."  This  earlier  Atrium  was  wholly  destroyed 
in  the  fire  of  Nero,  to  whom  the  first  rebuilding  dating  entirely 
from  the  imperial  period  is  due.  True,  "many  of  the  walls  were 
restored  more  than  once  before  their  final  destruction  and  new 
walls  were  added,"  but  the  level,  orientation,  and  essential  features 
of  the  republican  Atrium  remained  the  same  down  to  Nero's  day.8* 
The  centre  of  this  republican  structure  lying  below  the  level  oi 
Nero  was  a  square  court  corresponding  to  the  atrium  of  a  private 
house.  Portions  of  the  walls  of  this  court  have  been  preserved. 
From  it  the  term  atrium  spread  to  the  entire  building,  and  within 
it  stood  the  aedes  Vestae,  just  as  the  shrine  of  the  goddess  had  its 
place  in  every  private  atrium.57  According  to  a  recent  article  by 
Dr.  Van  Deman,  Methods  of  Determining  the  Date  of  Roman 
Concrete  Monuments  (American  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Vol. 
XVI,  p.  393),  the  extant  foundations  and  podium  of  the 
aedes  Vestae  not  only  antedate  Nero  but  fall  in  the  Augustan 
period  between  14  and  12  B.  C.  Both  these  and  the  walls  of 
the  central  court  thus  appear  to  be  the  very  masonry  existing  in 
Ovid's  day,  and  a  glance  at  plan  A  of  her  Atrium  Vestae  shows  us 
the  aedes  half  surrounded  by  the  court.  In  the  earliest  period, 
then,  we  may  rest  assured,  the  aedes  was  completely  surrounded 
by  the  court,  and  stood  probably  in  its  northwest  corner.  That 
the  Domus  publica,  or  residence  of  the  Pontifex  Maximus,  was 
structurally  a  part  of  the  Atrium,  we  are  informed  by  Dio  Cassjus, 
(LJV,  27),  who,  in  relating  how  Augustus  when  Pontifex  re- 
moved to  the  Palatine,  says : 

«7Yjv  jjLsvTOt  TOU  fettrtXeu;  i(ov  lep&v  (sc.  oouov) 
Tat?  as  i  Kaptisvotc  I§CDKSV  eirei'Stj  OJAOTO^OI;  -cat? 
oixiQfftffiv  auicov  r]v», 

"but  he  gave  the  house  of  the  Rex  sacrorum  to  the  Vestal  Vir- 
gins, since  it  was  joined  to  their  dwelling  by  a  party-wall." 

Dio  has  confused  the  names  Rex  sacrorum  and  Pontifex  Maxi- 
mus, but  this  does  not  impair  the  value  of  his  testimony  that  the 
house  was  ouoio'.yoc  .58  Dr.  Van  Deman  believes  that  certain 
remains  immediately  to  the  east  of  the  republican  court  belong  to 
the  Domus  publica.™  At  any  rate  the  passage  in  Dio  is  conclusive, 
and  since  we  have  seen  that  even  in  Ovid's  own  time  the  Atrium 


"  The  Atrium  Vestae,  pp.  4-5,  9-10,  15. 
"  The  Atrium  Vestae,  pp.  4-5,  9-10. 
"Wiss.,  pp.  502-503,  n.  7. 
w  The  Atrium  Vestae,  p.  13. 


22 

Vestae  proper,  or  Domus  Vestalium,  and  the  Domus  publica  were 
parts  of  one  building,  while  the  aedes  Vestae  virtually  made  up  a 
third  part  of  the  same,  what  is  more  natural  than  to  infer  that  the 
fourth  factor  in  the  group,  the  Regia,  was  also  in  the  beginning 
structurally  united  with  the  rest  ?  Such  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Van 
Deman,80  who  states  in  a  foot-note  that  the  road  now  separating 
the  temple  from  the  later  Regia  is  not  original.81  She  continues : 

"With  the  gradual  breaking  up  of  the  simple  cult  of  which  the 
king's  house  had  been  the  centre,  and  the  growing  independence 
of  the  various  priesthoods  among  which  the  several  religious  func- 
tions of  the  king  had  been  divided,  the  necessity  arose  for  the 
assignment  to  them  of  distinct  official  residences.  At  this  time  it 
is  probable  that  the  parts  of  the  Atrium  became  independent ;  for 
during  the  later  Republic  and  the  early  Empire,  in  place  of  a  single 
complex  structure  bearing  one  name,  there  were  recognized  four 
separate  parts  with  as  many  distinct  names,  two  of  which  were, 
however,  those  applied  earlier  to  the  whole  structure."62 

This  indiscriminate  application  of  the  terms  Regia  and  Atrium 
Vestae  seems  to  be  attested  by  several  passages.  First  of  all  Ljvy 
(XXVI,  27,  3)  says  in  describing  a  conflagration  in  the  Forum: 

"Conprehensae  lautumiae  forumque  piscatorium  et  atrium 
regium.  Aedis  Vestae  vix  defensa  est,"  and  again  (XXVII,  11, 
16): 

"Locaverunt  inde  reficienda  quae  circa  forum  incendio  con- 
sumpta  erant,  septem  tabernas,  macellum,  atrium  regium!' 

This  blending  of  the  two  names  is  curious.  Cicero,  writing  to 
Atticus63  of  the  latter's  interview  with  Caesar,  then  Pontifex 
Maximus,  says :  "Visum  te  aiunt  in  regia."  The  reference  is  evi- 
dently to  Atticus'  performance  of  the  morning  salutatio,  which 
was  made  at  the  residence,  not  office,  of  the  person  receiving  the 
call.  In  Caesar's  case  this  would  be  at  the  Domus  publica,  which 
Cicero  here  designates  under  the  general  term  Regia  for  the 
whole  building.  A  third  passage  is  that  of  Ovid  above  quoted, 
which  Peter  construes  so  differently: 


**  The  Atrium  Vestae,  p.  9. 
"  The  Atrium  Vestae,  p.  9,  n.  2. 
*  The  Atrium  Vestae,  p.  11. 
*Ad.  Att.  X,  3a. 


23 

"Hie  locus  exiguus  qui  sustinet  atria  Vestae 

Tune  erat  intonsi  regia  magna  Numae."64 

Dr.  Van  Deman65  cites  this  as  a  particularly  illuminating  exam- 
ple of  the  identity  of  the  two  names. 

If  this  is  so,  perhaps  Tristia  III,  1,  29-30,  is  to  be  understood  in 
the  same  way : 

"Hie  locus  est  Vestae,  qui  Pallada  servat  et  ignem, 
Haec  fuit  antiqui  regia  parva  Numae." 

"This  place  is  Vesta's. . .  This  is  the  little  Regia  which  once  be- 
longed to  ancient  Numa." 

But,  if  regia  and  locus,  that  is  Atrium,  are  not  here  used 
interchangeably,  then  the  only  remaining  conclusion  is  that  regia 
is  employed  in  its  restricted  sense  and  refers  to  the  building  proper 
of  that  name.  In  that  case,  even  if  Ovid  did  mean  by  Fasti  VI, 
262-4,  that  the  Domus  Vestalium  was  Numa's  palace,  as  Peter 
supposes,  yet  the  passage  from  the  Tristia  would  contradict  the 
poet,  and  commit  him  by  his  own  statement  to  the  current  view 
supported  by  Solinus  and  Plutarch,  which  gives  that  honor  to 
Regia." 

We  have  seen  that  the  Regia  and  the  Atrium  were  probably  in 
the  beginning  structurally  united ;  or,  at  least,  that  the  Romans  of 
the  classical  period  appear  to  make  use  of  either  name  indiffer- 
ently; but  even  were  this  view  incorrect,  regia  in  Tristia  III, 
1,  29-30,  cannot  refer  to  any  one  part  of  the  temenos  of  Vesta 
except  the  edifice  to  which  the  term  "Regia"  was  technically 
applied.  Therefore,  since  Ovid,  like  Solinus  and  Plutarch,*7 
couples  the  Regia  with  Numa's  name,  penetrate  Numae  in 
Fasti  II,  69,  should  be  taken  as  a  reference  to  that  building  and 
not  to  the  Domus  Vestalium. 


MF,  VI,  263-4. 

M  The  Atrium  Vestae,  p.  10,  n.  4. 

M  Solin.  I,  21 :  "propter  aedem  Vestae  in  Regia,  quae  adhuc,  ita 
appellatur" ;  Plut.  Numa  XI V :  cefoifiaTo  jtXtioiov  TOU  Tfjg  'Eotiag  Uoov 
TT)V  xaXov|i£vr)v  TTJYUXV  olovn,  6acaXEU>v  olxima». 

"  Cf.  Tac.  Ann.  XV,  41,  "Numaequc  Regia  et  delubrura  Vestae,"  or 
are  these  words  a  further  illustration  of  the  interchanging  of  the  two 
terms? 


VI. 

But  why  this  elaborate  digression  to  prove  penetrate  Numae 
identical  with  "Regia"?  The  lines  are: 

"Ad  penetrale  Numae  Capitolinumque  Tonantem 
Inque  lovis  summa  caeditur  arce  bidens,"68 

that  is,  on  the  first  of  February,  the  date  assigned  in  the  poem,  a 
bidens  was  slain  in  sacrifice  at  each  of  three  places,  the  Regia, 
the  temple  of  Jupiter  Tonans  on  the  Capitolium,  and  in  arce. 
Let  us  first  determine  the  meaning  of  arx  in  this  passage. 

Correct  technical  usage  would  confine  the  application  of  the 
word  arx  in  Roman  topography  to  the  fortified  northern  spur  of 
the  Capitoline  Hill.  Both  poets  and  historians,  however,  when 
writing  of  the  Capitoline,  frequently  employ  it  more  loosely.  H. 
Peter  in  his  notes  on  Fasti  II,  70,  is  of  the  opinion  that  lovis 
summa  arce"  means  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus.69 
I  can  find  but  one  parallel  for  this  interpretation.  It  will  be  noted 
in  a  moment.  Arx  is  sometimes  employed  in  reference  to  a  build- 
ing, but  only  where  the  idea  of  a  stronghold  or  castle  is  more 
plainly  implied  than  in  the  present  instance.70.  It  is  really  the 
Latin  equivalent  of  oxporcoXsq  and  in  instances  where  it  is  used 
of  an  actual  building  the  derived  meaning  is  almost  invariably 
dependent  on  the  original  thought  of  the  lofty  and  easily  defended 
situation  which  the  structure  occupies.  The  parallel  to  Peter's 
interpretation  of  Fasti,  II,  70,  is  arce  lovis  in  Fasti  VI,  18, 
which,  because  of  the  connection  with  33-34,  I  take  with  Peter 


"  P.  II,  69-70. 

69  See  especially  critical  note  in  his  edition. 

70Liv.  II,  7,  6,  "alto  .  .  loco  arcem  inexpugnabile  fore"  of  the  house  of 
Poplicola  on  the  Velia;  Tac.  Ann.  XIV,  31,  "templum  divo  Claudio  con- 
stitutum  quasi  arx  aeternae  dominationis" ;  Agric.  45:  "intra  Albanam 
arcem  sententia  Messalini  strepebat,"  of  the  imperial  villa  (cf.  Octavia, 
"receptus  arce")  ;  Hor.  S.  II,  6,  16:  "ubi  me  in  montes  et  in  arcem  ex 
urbe  rcmovi";  etc. 

24 


25 

to  signify  the  Optimus  Maximus  temple,71  though  the  Thesaurus 
understands  it  of  Jupiter's  heavenly  abode  as  in  such  passages 
as  Fasti  I,  85,  "luppiter  arce  sua  totum  cum  spectat  in  orbem." 
The  expression  arx  lovis  or  its  equivalent,  arx  Tonantis,  where 
Tonantis  is  a  mere  epithet  equal  to  lovis72  occurs  in  other  pas- 
sages of  Ovid.  In  Fasti  VI,  349-350,  we  have : 

"Nomine  quam  pretio  celebratior  arce  Tonantis, 

Dicam,  Pistoris  quid  velit  ara  lovis." 

For  these  lines  there  is  absolutely  no  proof  that  arce  Tonantis 
means  either  the  temple  or  4he  portion  of  the  hill  to  which  Capi- 
tolium  was  applied  rather  than  the  Arx  in  its  true  sense  of  the 
northern  spur  of  the  Capitoline  Hill,  since  nothing  is  known  of 
this  altar  to  Jupitor  Pistor.73  Arce  lovis  in  Fasti  IV,  635,  the 
scene  of  part  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Fordicidia,  is  equally  indefi- 
nite, and  can  as  easily  refer  to  the  true  Arx.  Tibullus  (II,  5,  25) 
furnishes  a  further  example  of  the  expression : 

"Sed  tune  pascebant  herbosa  Palatia  vaccae, 
Et  stabant  humiles  in  lovis  arce  casae," 

where  there  is  no  thought  of  the  temple,  or  apparently  of  either 
summit  in  particular,  but  the  idea  is  merely  that  of  the  Capitoline 
Hill  in  a  general  sense  as  compared  with  the  Palatine.  -But  Peter 
in  his  note  on  Fasti  II,  69-7074  cites  Livy  (XXVIII,  39,  15) 
as  evidence  of  the  use  of  arx  in  the  sense  of  Capitolium.  The 
words  "lovi  Optimo  Maximo  praesidi  Capitolinae  arcis"  do  not 
compel  this  narrow  interpretation,  however.  They  are  indefinite 
and  appear  to  me  to  be  employed  rather  of  the  hill  as  a  whole. 


71  F.  VI,  17-18: 

"Ex  illis  fuit  una,  sui  germana  mariti, 

Haec  erat  (agnovi),  quae  stat  in  arce  lovis". 
F.  VI,  33-34: 
"Si  torus  in  pretio  est,  dicor  matrona  Tonantis, 

lunctaque  Tarpeio  sunt  mea  templa  lovi". 

"Fasti  VI,  33-4;  349;  IV,  585;  Heroid.  IX,  7;  Metam.  II,  466; 
Hor.  Epod.  II,  29;  Statius  Silvae  IV,  4,  58;  Achil.  I,  1-2;  Martial  V, 
55;  V,  72;  VII,  60,  1-2;  etc. 

73  Cf.  Jordan  I,  2,  p.  50:  "Unsicher  bleibt  der  Standort  des  Altars  des 
Juppiter  Pistor",  and  n.  51.  "Das  die  von  Ovid,  Lactantius  (I,  20,  33), 
erwahnte  ara  lovis  Pistoris  auf  dem  Capitol  stand  .  .  ist  unerweislich". 
Preller  (I,  p.  194),  while  placing  it  on  the  Capitol  says  (n.  5)  :  "Das  die 
ara  lovis  Pistoris  auf  dem  Capitol  gestanden  ist  nicht  bezeugt  und  folgt 
nicht  nothwendig  aus  Ovid". 
7i  See  n.  69  above. 


26 

If,  however,  they  be  taken  in  a  restricted  sense  at  all,  Capitol- 
inae  arcis  points  naturally  to  the  actual  citadel,  especially  with 
the  word  "defender,"  praesidi,  on  which  the  genitive  depends. 
Likewise  the  same  expression  in  Livy  VI,  20,  9,  because  of  the 
co-ordinate  use  of  Capitolium  atque  arcem  in  the  same  passage, 
can  refer  only  to  the  hill  in  general: 

"Identidem  Capitolium  spectans  lovem  deosque  alios  devocasse 
ad  auxilium  fortunarum  suarum  precatusque  esse,  ut  quam 
mentem  sibi  Capitolinam  arcem  protegenti  ad  salutem  populi 
Romani  dedissent,  earn  populo  Romano  in  suo  discrimine  darent ; 
et  orasse  singulos  universosque,  ut  Capitolium  atque  arcem 
intuentes,  ut  ad  decs  inmortales  versi  de  se  iudicarent." 

The  same  is  true  of  the  passage  in  Tacitus  Hist.  Ill,  71,  too 
long  to  quote.  Any  siege  or  storming  of  the  Capitoline  Hill  would 
naturally  involve  both  spurs,  so  Capitolina  arx  is  likely  to  be  noth- 
ing more  than  a  general  term  for  the  entire  mount.  In  Livy's 
account  of  Tarpeia's  treason  and  the  battle  over  the  Sabine  women, 
arx  certainly  means  the  entire  hill,  unless  it  refer  to  the  true 
Arx  alone,  for  we  even  find  the  words  "quod  inter  Palatinum 
Capitolinumque  collem  campi"  (I,  11-12),  the  distinction  being,  as 
in  Tibullus  II,  5,  between  the  Palatine  and  Capitoline  Hills.  Ovid 
himself  affords  one  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  the  use  of 
the  word  meaning  the  hill  in  general,  where  Mars  in  addressing 
an  assemblage  of  the  gods  speaks  of  their  abodes  in  arce,  that  is, 
their  temples,  which  lay  on  both  spurs  (Fasti  VI,  367).  Compare 
with  this  Livy  (VI,  16,  2),  "luppiter  Optime  Maxime  lunoque 
regina  ac  Minerva  ceterique  dii  deaeque  qui  Capitolium  arcemque 
incolitis."  One  other  passage  in  Ovid  (Tristia  IV,  2,  55-56), 
besides  that  already  mentioned  (Fasti  VI,  18),  may  be  a  reference 
to  the  Capitolium  alone,  though  it  would  appear  to  mean  the  hill 
and  not  the  building.  The  lines  are  descriptive  of  the  offering 
at  a  triumph,  and  are  as  follows : 

"Inde  petes  arcem  et  delubra  f aventia  votis ; 
Et  dabitur  merito  laurea  vota  lovi." 

It  is  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  of  course,  whose  temple  is  re- 
ferred to  in  delubra.  Even  in  these  lines,  however,  I  do  not  see 
why  arcem  cannot  be  applied  vaguely  to  the  Capitoline  as  a 
whole,  though  the  thought  of  the  southern  spur  is  certainly  more 
prominent.  Now  there  are  two  other  passages  in  the  Fasti  in 


27 

which  the  same  adjective  modifies  arx  as  in  II,  70.  The  first 
of  these  (I,  257-264)  treats  of  Tarpeia's  treason  with  the  words 
(261-262),  "Sabinos  ad  summae  tacitos  duxerit  arcis  iter,"  which 
seem  to  me  certainly  to  refer,  like  Livy  I,  11-12,  if  not  to  the  true 
Arx,  at  least  to  the  Hill  in  general.  That  summon  is  here  parti- 
tive, meaning  "the  top  of  the  Arx,"  is  shown  by  comparing  it  with 
Livy  I,  22,  which  speaks  of  the  battle  between  the  Romans  and 
the  Sabines  as  taking  place  in  infima  arce,  "at  the  bottom  of  the 
Arx,"  as  described  in  I,  12.  (Summae  arcis  cannot,  then,  here 
refer  to  the  temple.  In  "the  second  of  these  two  Ovidian  pas- 
sages arx  is  used  unmistakably  of  the  northern  spur  of  the  Hill, 
the  words  being  (VI,  183),  "arce  in  summa  lunoni  templa  Mone- 
tae  facta,"  for  the  temple  of  Juno  Moneta  is  well  known  to  have 
stood  on  the  Arx.  In  view  of  these  parallels  I  think  there  can  be 
no  doubt  whatever  that  in  lovis  summa  arce  of  II,  70,  cannot 
refer  to  the  temple,  but  rather  means  the  top  of  the  hill. 

Since  in  Fasti  II,  69-70,  we  have  sacrifices  at  three  places,  the 
Regia  (penetrate  Numae),  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Tonans,  which 
stood  on  the  summit  of  the  Capitolium  near  the  temple  of  Optimus 
Maximus,  and  thirdly,  on  top  of  the  arx  of  Jupiter,  lovis  summa 
arce  cannot  here  refer  to  the  hill  as  a  whole  or  to  the  Capitolium 
proper,  for  the  Capitolium  has  already  been  mentioned  in  the 
second  place.  Therefore  the  last  place  cannot  well  be  other  than 
the  true  Arx.  The  Arx  was,  like  the  Capitolium,  sacred  to  Jupiter, 
for  it  was  here  that  the  augurs  performed  their  function  of  inter- 
preting his  will75  and  of  sacrificing  with  secret  rites;76  and  the 
augurs  were  interpretes  lovis  Optimi  Maximi.77  The  sacra  Non- 


78  Liv.  I,  18,  6-1Q;  Varro  L.  L.  V,  47. 

"Paul.,  p.  16  (under  Arcani),  "sive  a  genere  sacrificii,  quod  in  arce  fit 
ab  auguribus,  adeo  remotum  a  notitia  vulgari,  ut  ne  litteris  quidem  man- 
detur,  sed  per  memoriam  successorum  celebretur". 

"  Cic.  de  Leg.  II,  20.  The  title  Optimus  Maximus  in  this  connection 
may  seem  to  associate  that  cult  with  the  Arx.  All  that  is  probably  meant, 
however,  is  that  with  the  advent  of  the  cult  of  Optimus  Maximus  as  the 
supreme  deity  of  the  state,  the  augurs,  whose  science  was  consulted  before 
commencing  any  act  of  political  importance,  became  associated  with  this 
greatest  of  the  Jupiters,  but  continued  to  function  on  the  same  hill-top 
where  they  had  always  interpreted  the  signs  of  the  weather-god.  Varro 
(L.  L.  V,  52),  tells  of  another  auguraculum  on  the  Quirinal,  doubtless 
overshadowed  after  the  establishing  of  the  Etruscan  dynasty,  by  that  on 
the  Arx. 


28 

alia  were  held  on  the  Arx,78  and  we  know  furthermore  that  the 
worship  of  Jupiter  on  hill-tops  was  a  primitive  custom  in  Rome, 
as  in  the  rest  of  Italy.79  Moreover,  this  Jupiter,  who  was  worship- 
ped out  of  doors  on  hill-tops  in  the  primitive  religion  and  whose 
will  was  interpreted  by  the  augurs,  was  the  great  Aryan  weather- 
god,  and  the  offering  on  the  Arx  was  unquestionably  to  him. 
Jupiter  Tonans  too  was  a  weather-god.  Therefore,  since  we  have 
sacrifices  on  February  1  on  both  Arx  and  Capitolium  to  Jupiter  in 
his  aspect  of  a  weather-deity,  the  sacrifice  in  the  Regia  on  that  day 
must  have  been  to  the  weather- Jupiter,  just  as  was  the  ram 
offered  there  by  the  Flaminica  Dialis  on  the  Nundinae. 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  on  February  1  a  bidens  was  immo- 
lated to  the  Jupiter  of  the  weather  at  the  Regia,  at  the  Tonans 
Temple,  and  on  the  Arx.  This  implies  that  the  entire  ceremony 
took  place  at  each  of  the  three  places,  and  the  victim  could  not 
have  been  slain  on  the  Arx  and  its  exta  brought  down  to  the 
Regia  to  be  burned.  There  is  absolutely  no  necessity,  therefore, 
for  reading  any  such  action  into  the  ceremony  of  the  sacra  Idulia, 
and  the  conclusion  must  be  that  the  Regia  played  no  part  in  the 
festival  of  the  Ides,  but  that  when  Varro  says  "sacra  quotquot 
mensibus  feruntur  in  arcem"  (Z,.  Z,.  V,  47,  see  above)  he  means 
that  the  sacra  Idulia  were  carried  to  the  Arx,  and  that  there  the 
victim  was  slain  and  its  exta  burned. 


VII. 

How,  then,  could  Ovid  have  made  such  a  mistake  as  to  say  that 
the  exta  was  given  to  the  flames  in  magni  loins  aede,  when  no 
aedes  of  Jupiter  is  known  to  have  stood  on  the  Arx?  The  answer 
is  not  hard  to  find.  It  is  extremely  probable  that  Ovid,  however 
often  he  might  have  seen  the  procession  pass  along  the  Sacra  Via, 
never  witnessed  the  sacrifice,  for  the  celebration  was  a  survival 
from  the  oldest  Roman  religious  history,  and,  we  may  infer,  was 
attended  solely  by  the  priests.  The  leading  sources,80  however, 


"Varro  L.  L.  VI,  28. 

79Wiss.,  p.  116  and  n.  5;  Fowler,  R.  P.,  pp.  228-9;  R.  E.  R.  P.,  p.  129 
and  n.  41. 

80 1  shall  deal  with  this  question  more  fully  in  a  subsequent  article. 


29 

which  Ovid  consulted  on  questions  of  Roman  religion  in  his  Fasti 
were  Varro's  writings81  and  a  lost  book  of  Fasti  by  Verrius  Flac- 
cus,  of  which  fragments  have  been  preserved  in  its  epitome,  the 
Fasti  Praencstini,  and  in  such  passages  of  Festus'  and  Paulus' 
abridgments  of  the  de  Verborum  Significatu  as  show  their  deriva- 
tion from  a  calendar  of  festivals.82  The  de  Verborum  Significatu 
itself  was  not  published  in  time  to  be  a  source  for  Ovid,  whose 
poem,  except  for  the  few  passages  revised  at  Tomi,  must  have 
been  written  between  the  publication  of  Verrius'  Fasti,  4-6  A.  D., 


81  See  Peter's  Edition,  p.  16 ;  Schanz,  Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteratur, 
2  I,  p.  314;  Franke,  De  Ovidii  Fastorum  Fontibus  Capita  Tria  (diss. 
Halle,  1909),  pp.  51-52.  Merkel,  critical  notes  to  his  edition. 

"  Schanz  2  I,  p.  313 :  "Fur  Ovid  war  ein  Handbuch  notwendig,  in  dem 
nach  dem  Kalender  die  Feste  atiologisch  behandelt  waren;  denn  die 
Annahme,  dass  sich  Ovid  erst  den  Stoff  zusammensuchte,  ist  ganz  unwahr- 
scheinlich.  Wie  durch  Combination  geschlossen  wird,  verfasste  der 
beriihmte  Grammatiker,  Verrius  Flaccus,  ein  solches  Handbuch,  und  aus 
diesem  gelehrten  Werk  ist,  wie  Mommsen  (CIL.  P,  p.  285),  (p.  313, 
p.  314),  zu  erweisen  versucht  hat,  der  praenestinischen  Steinkalender,  den 
Sueton  mit  Verrius  Flaccus  in  Beziehung  bringt,  nur  ein  Auszug.  Dieses 
Handbuch  benutzte  aber  Verrius  Flaccus  auch  in  seiner  Schrift,  de 
verborum  significatu;  cf.  Winther,  De  Fastis  Verrii  Placet  ab  Ovidio 
adhibitis,  p.  42;  Franke,  p.  32.  Aus  der  Uebereinstimmung  zwischen 
Ovid  und  Verrius  Flaccus  schloss  Winther  dass  das  kalendarische  Hand- 
buch des  Verrius  Flaccus,  soweit  die  romischen  Sagen  in  Betracht  kamen, 
die  einzige  Quelle  sei.  Gegen  diese  Hypothese  nahmen  Stellung  H.  Peter, 
Ausg,  I4  p.  16  Anm.  2;  H.  Willers,  p.  39;  M.  Rabenhorst,  p.  70;  H. 
Willemsen,  p.  32;  P.  Wessner,  Berl  philol.  Wochenschrift  1910  Sp.  680. 
Unrichtig  ist  in  der  Wintherschen  Hypothese  das  Einquellenprinzip 
outriert  worden;  treffend  Wissowa,  p.  271,  lusto  plura  huic  fonti  tribuit 
nimiusque  fuit  in  aliis  auctoribus  excludendis;  qui  ut  Varronem  nisi 
intercedente  Verrio  ab  Ovidio  adhibitum  esse  injuria  negavit.'  Aber 
wenn  wir  einerseits  das  Einquellenprinzip  verwerfen,  so  muss  anderer- 
seits  doch  daran  festgehalten  werden,  dass  die  Grundlage  der  ovidischen 
Dichtung  ein  Handbuch  bildete  und  dass  dieses  hochst  wahrscheinlich 
von  Verrius  Flaccus  herruhrte".  See  particularly  the  able  treatment  of 
this  subject  by  Karl  Franke,  De  Ovidii  Fastorum  Fontibus  Capita  Tria, 
Halle,  1909,  too  long  to  be  quoted  here,  in  which  he  points  out  that  a 
passage  in  Festus  like  that  on  the  Quinquatrus,  p.  254,  where  the  words 
"Minervae  autem  dicatum  eum  diem  existimant,  quod  eo  die  aedis  eius 
in  Aventino  consecrata  est",  are  appended  to  an  explanation  of  the  word 
Quinquatrus,  adds  nothing  to  the  explanation  of  the  word  and  betrays 
itself  as  having  been  transferred  from  a  calendar,  pp.  29-32. 


30 
and  his  own  banishment  in  the  year  9."    As  the  passage  from 


"If  Festus,  p.  347a2S,  "ubi  mine  est  aedis  Concordiae  inter  Capitolium 
ct  Forum",  is  copied  from  Verrius  without  interpolation  and  refers  to 
the  temple  after  its  restoration  in  A.  D.  10,  or  one  year  after  Ovid's 
banishment,  we  have  here  sufficient  evidence  that  the  de  Verborum  Signifi- 
catu  was  published  too  late  for  Ovid's  use.  R.  Merkel,  in  the  Pro- 
legomena to  his  edition  of  the  Fasti,  p.  XCV,  not  only  uses  this  refer- 
ence as  an  argument,  but  makes  capital  of  the  fact  that  Festus  seven 
times  draws  on  Ateius  Capito  in  matters  of  pontifical  law,  who  was 
probably  born  about  the  year  34  B.  C.  and  died  in  22  A  D.;  (see  Tac. 
Ann.,  Ill,  75,  Frontinus  Aq.  102.  Teuffel  and  Schwabe  Hist,  of  Roman  Lit- 
erature, Warr's  translation,  I,  265,  and  Schanz  2  I,  p.  532),  for,  if  Verrius 
drew  on  him,  how  could  the  de  Verborum  Significatu  have  been  written 
until  Ateius  had  become  old  and  mature  enough  to  publish  a  learned 
work?  Ateius  wrote  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  books  on  human  and 
divine  law,  and  if  he  followed  Varro's  order  of  writing  those  on  human 
law  first,  it  would  place  the  date  of  his  work  on  pontifical  law  so  much 
later.  Suetonius  (de  Grammaticis  et  Rhetoribus  17)  says  of  Verrius  Flac- 
cus :  "Decessit  aetatis  exactae  sub  Tiberio".  Schanz  2  I,  p.  506,  says :  "Wahr- 
scheinlich  fallt  das  Werk  (de  Verborum  Significatu)  in  die  Regierungszeit 
des  Tiberius".  "When  Ovid  began  the  Fasti  cannot  be  definitely  deter- 
mined," says  Schanz,  2  I,  p.  308,  who  adds:  "at  any  rate  after  the  love 
poems  were  finished.  The  4th  book  falls  in  the  period  following  the 
conflagration  on  the  Palatine  because  of  which  a  restoration  of  the  tem- 
ple of  Magna  Mater  by  Augustus  became  necessary",  in  the  year  3  A.  D. 
(See  Fasti  IV,  348).  "The  nature  of  the  work  prevented  its  being  com- 
posed in  a  continuous  chain".  Peter,  in  the  introduction  to  his  edition, 
pp.  10-11,  says  that  at  any  rate  the  composition  fell  some  time  after 
Augustus'  restoration  of  the  Julian  Kalender  in  8  B.  C.,  and  Book  IV 
after  3  A  D.  In  a  footnote,  however  (n.  4),  he  asserts  that  the  question 
has  in  the  main  been  solved  by  Merkel's  industry  and  acumen.  Merkel 
believes  that  Ovid  began  his  work  in  the  year  755  A  U.  C.  (p.  X  C I  V 
and  CCLV).  He  was  banished  in  9  A.  D.,  and  seems  to  have  done 
little  with  the  poem  after  that  date,  beyond  revising  Book  I.  It  is,  there- 
fore, highly  improbable  that  the  de  Verborum  Significatu  was  written 
before  his  banishment.  On  the  other  hand  Franke,  pp.  4-5,  shows  con- 
vincing evidence  that  Verrius'  Fasti  were  written  between  A.  U.  C.  757 
and  759.  As  Ovid  undoubtedly  used  these  as  a  source  (see  n.  82,  quota- 
tion from  Schanz)  and  we  have  seen  above  that  for  another  reason 
Ovid's  4th  book  must  have  been  written  after  3  A.  D.  or  756,  surely  it 
seems  safe  to  conjecture  that  his  poem,  except  its  revised  portions,  was 
composed  in  the  four  or  five  years  between  the  completion  of  Verrius' 
Fasti  and  his  own  banishment.  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Kirby  Flower 
Smith  for  the  suggestion  that  the  publication  of  Verrius'  book  would 
naturally  stimulate  Ovid  to  a  similar  essay  in  the  field  of  poetry. 


31 

Festus  above  quoted,84  relating  to  the  Arx  and  the  sacra  Idulia, 
is  an  explanation  of  the  name  Sacra  Via  and  the  mention  .of  the 
day  and  festival  is  incomplete  and  subordinate,  it  cannot  well  have 
been  transferred  from  Verrius'  work  on  the  calendar;  but 
although  notes  in  the  Praenestini  pertaining  to  the  Ides  have  been 
lost,  the  poet  must  either  have  read  a  note  in  Verrius'  book  of 
Fasti  to  the  effect  that  on  the  Ides  a  sheep  was  offered  to  Jupiter 
on  the  Arx,  or  else  he  derived  his  information  from  Varro  and 
read  perhaps  something  to  this  effect :  Idibus  ftamen  Dialis  in  arce 
lovi  vervecem  immolat.  At  any  rate,  being  a  poet  and  story- 
teller rather  than  a  scholar,  he  seems  undoubtedly  to  have 
bestowed  but  a  superficial  reading  on  his  learned  authority,  and 
seeing  the  word  arx,  to  have  understood  it  in  the  loose,  general 
application  to  the  entire  hill,  so  often  given  it,85  the  thought  of  the 
Capitolium  and  temple  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  however, 
being  more  prominent  in  his  mind,  as  in  his  own  lines  from 
Tristia  (IV,  2,  55-56),  already  quoted.86  He  has  thus  made  the 
mistake  of  assigning  to  the  great  political  Jupiter  of  the  Capitoline 
temple  a  sacrifice  made  out  of  doors  on  the  Arx  to  the  primitive 
weather-god,  and  has  even  gone  so  far  as  to  record  the  offering 
as  taking  place  in  aede,  when  we  know  that  sacrifices  in  the 
cella  or  the  portico  were  extremely  rare  and  that  the  usual 
custom  in  temple  cults  was  to  burn  the  exta  on  an  altar  on  or 
before  the  steps  of  the  podium. 


84 p.  290  (Muller's  edition). 

M  See  above:  Tibullus  II,  5,  25;  Ov.  F.  VI,  367;  Liv.  I,  12,  22;  XXVIII, 
39,  15. 
"•  See  above,  and  cf.  also  n.  71. 


THE  SEX  OF  THE  OVIS  IDUUS. 

My  first  chapter  dealt  with  the  question  of  the  place  of  the 
sacrifice,  the  conclusion  being  that,  through  a  misunderstanding 
of  his  source,  Ovid  has  fallen  into  a  statement  that  is  decid- 
edly incorrect.  The  present^task  is  to  examine  his  two  remarks 
concerning  the  sex  of  the  victim  and  their  credibility  in  the  light 
of  what  is  further  known  about  this  sacrifice  and  about  Roman 
sacrificial  ritual  as  a  whole.  Ovid's  two  passages  are  Fasti1 1,  56 : 

"Idibus  alba  lovi  grandior  agna  cadit", 
and  I,  587-588: 

"Idibus  in  magni  castus  lovis  aede  sacerdos 
Semimaris  flammis  viscera  libat  -ovis," 

which  are  apparently  at  variance  in  that  agna  would  seem  to 
represent  the  female,  while  semimas  ovis  is  unmistakably  not  the 
female  but  the  mrvex.  Is  this  inconsistency  real  or  only  on  the 
surface  ? 

Before  a  closer  scrutiny  of  the  problems  in  this  individual 
ceremony,  it  will  be  well  to  review  the  general  prescriptions  of 
Roman  pontifical  law  in  their  bearing  on  the  victim  of  the  Ides, 
confining  attention  to  the  ritual  of  the  Roman  State,  to  the 
exclusion  of  sacra  privata  and  Graecus  ritus,  whose  practices 
were  materially  different  from  the  purely  Roman  customs  sur- 
viving from  Rome's  prehistoric  beginnings.2 

Our  trustworthy  sources  for  this  study  are  inscriptions  and 
the  works  of  Roman  writers  on  pontifical  law,  in  so  far  as  frag- 
ments of  those  works  have  survived  to  us,  and,  to  a  greater  or 
less  degree,  other  Greek  and  Roman  scholars  and  antiquarians. 


1  Hereafter  to  be  cited  as  F. 

2Wiss.,  p.  420,  and  n.  3  to  p.  420.  C.  Krause,  De  Romanorum  Hostiis 
Quaestiones  Selectae.  Krause's  thesis,  though  containing  serious  errors, 
is  the  most  convenient  handbook  for  a  study  of  Roman  sacrificial  victims, 
and  is  frequently  referred  to  by  Wissowa. 

33 


34 

The  poets  are  unreliable  on  questions  of  ritual,3  unless,  as 
appears  to  be  true  in  the  case  of  the  sacra  Idulia,  they  are  corro- 
borated by  scholarly  prose  writers,4  but  they  often  afford  val- 
uable testimony  where  the  proof  turns  partly  on  questions  of 
language  or  of  style.  This  is  especially  true  of  Ovid  himself.5 

As  is  well  known,  Roman  pontifical  law  laid  down  the  rules 
of  ritualistic  observance  with  an  almost  painful  exactness  and 
devotion  to  detail.6  One  of  its  fundamental  principles  was  that 
male  animals  should  be  offered  to  male  deities,  female  to  female.7" 

There  are  three  striking  exceptions8  to  this  rule  in  the  prose 


8  Krause,  pp.  22-23  and  n.  1. 

4  The  problem  of  the  present  chapter  is  that  Ovid  F.  I,  588  calls  the 
victim  of  the  Ides  a  vervex,  yet  in  I,  56  says  grandior  agna,  while  the 
feminine  form  agna  is  supported  by  Paulus,  p.  104,  and  by  Macrobius  I,  15, 
16;  see  p.  4  below. 

'  See  Chapter  I.  Here  I  showed  that  the  sacra  Idulia  must  have  taken 
place  on  the  northern  spur  of  the  Capitoline  Hill,  technically  known  as 
the  Arx,  but  that  Ovid  and  other  writers  loosely  employ  the  term  arx  of 
the  hill  as  a  whole,  sometimes  the  thought  of  the  Capitolium,  or  southern 
spur,  being  more  prominent  in  their  minds ;  that  Ovid,  then,  when  he  read 
in  his  source  that  the  sacrifice  took  place  in  arce,  understood  the  phrase  as 
a  reference  to  the  hill  in  general  but  more  particularly  to  the  Capitolium, 
and  so  incorrectly  recorded  that  the  sacrifice  took  place  in  the  great  temple 
of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  which  stood  on  that  spur. 

6  Cic.  de  Leg.  II,  29 :    "Nam  illud  ex  institutis  pontificum  et  haruspicum 
non  mutandum  est,  quibus  hostiis  immolandum  cui  maioribus,  cui  lactenti- 
bus,  cui  maribus,  cui  feminis."    Ateius  Capito  ap.  Macrob.  Ill,  10,  4.  Wiss. 
p.  413. 

7  Wiss.,  p.  413.    Krause,  pp.  19-20,  and  the  list  of  sacrifices  on  p.  31  sqq. 
1  An  apparent  exception  that  would  apply  equally  to  all  sacrifices  is  the 

passage  of  Servius,  ad  Aen.  VIII,  641 :  "In  omnibus  sacris  feminini  generis 
plus  valent  victimae.  Denique  si  per  marem  litare  non  possent  succidanea 
dabatur  femina;  si  autem  per  feminam  non  litassent  succidanea  adhiberi 
non  poterat,"  which  has  been  refuted  by  Krause,  pp.  30-31.  Krause  quotes 
Livy  XLI,  15:  "Alter  consul  curam  adiecit,  qui,  quod  caput  iecinori  de- 
fuisset,  tribus  bubus  perlitasse  negavit;  senatus  maioribus  hostiis  usque 
ad  litationem  sacrificari  iussit".  Wissowa  throws  the  weight  of  his  author- 
ity against  Servius,  and  cites  Krause  in  a  footnote,  pp.  415-416  and  notes 
7  and  8. 


35 

writers,  however,  which  I  expect  to  prove  to  be  only  apparent:9 
the  sacrifice  of  a  capra  to  Vediovis  (Gell.  V,  12,  12) ;  of  an  agna 
to  Jupiter  at  the  auspicatio  vindemiae  (Varro  L.  L.  VI.  16)  ;10 
and  of  the  ovis  Idulis  to  Jupiter.  As  the  proof  for  my  position 
on  the  first  two  is  bound  up  with  that  for  my  position  on  the 
third,  which  is  the  real  subject  of  the  present  dissertation,  I  shall 
proceed  at  once  to  a  discussion  of  the  ovis  Idulis. 

Four  places  have  survived  in  Roman  literature  that  pertain  to 
the  victim  of  the  Ides,  namely,  those  of  Ovid,  above  quoted,  and 
two  prose  passages,  one  in  Paulus  Diaconus11  and  one  in  Macro- 
bius.12  Paulus  says : 

"Idulis  ovis  dicebatur  quae  omnibus  Idibus  lovi  mactabatur". 

The  words  in  Macrobius  are: 

"Sunt  qui  aestiment  Idus  ab  ove  Iduli  dictas,  quam  hoc  nomine 
vocant  Tusci  et  omnibus  Idibus  lovi  immolatur  a  flamine". 

Let  it  be  noted  that  the  relative  pronoun  modifying  ovis  in 
both  instances  is  feminine.  Therefore,  these  two  passages,  with 
that  of  Varro  just  cited  on  the  agna  of  the  auspicatio  vindemiae, 
taken  in  connection  with  grandior  agna  in  Fasti  I,  56,  would 
seem  to  constitute  rather  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  the 
offering  of  female  victims  to  Jupiter,  especially  of  a  female  sheep 
on  the  Ides. 


9  Krause,   p.   20   sqq.,    contends    that  these   exceptions    are   merely   ap- 
parent, but  his  arguments  are  in  the  main  superficial,  and  he  does  not 
seem  to  me  to  offer  convincing  proof.    He  fails  to  produce  any  testimony 
that  the  agna  of  the  auspicatio  vindemiae  was  male,  except  (p.  15)  to  draw 
the  inference  from  Paulus,  p.  6,  that  agna  was  of  common  gender  and 
to  conclude  (p.  22)  in  contradiction  of  this  hypothesis  that  Varro  (L.  L. 
VI,  16)  had  made  a  mistake.    As  regards  the  ovis  Idulis  (pp.  11-12),  he 
makes  the  assertion  that  ancient  and  modern  writers  wrongly  agree  that  it 
was  female,  and  thus  leaves  out  of  account  Ovid's  positive  statement  that 
the  victim  was  a  vcrvex,  which  Krause  quotes  but  otherwise  ignores ;  he  is 
chiefly  concerned  with  proving  that  the  animal  was  the  aries  rather  than 
the  vervex  or  castrated  male.    Altogether  there  is  need  of  a  thorough  in- 
vestigation to  establish  the  nature  of  this  sacrifice. 

10  "Nam  aliquot  locis  vindemiae  primum  ab  sacerdotibus  publice  fiebant, 
ut  Romae  etiam  nunc;  nam  flamen  Dialis  auspicatur  vindemiam  et  ut 
iussit  vinum  legere  agna  lovi  facit,  inter  cuius  exta  caesa  et  proiecta  flamen 
t  porus  vinum  legit." 

11  p.  104. 

*  I,  15,  16. 


36 

But  it  can  hardly  be  poetic  license  or  carelessness  that  caused 
Ovid  in  I,  588,  to  say  that  the  animal  was  semimas,  or  castrated. 
Agna,  as  will  be  seen  later,  is  an  ordinary  term  which  Ovid  might 
easily  have  written  for  stylistic  reasons.  Semimas  ovis,  on  the 
contrary,  is  an  unusual  expression,  and  the  poet  is  going  out  of 
his  way  to  employ  it.  But  verve  x  stands  in  the  Ada,  Fratrum 
Arvalium™  as  the  only  one  of  the  sheep  kind  to  be  offered  to 
Jupiter,  while  Janus  on  the  other  hand  receives  each  time  an 
aries^  and  the  goddesses  oves.  So  detailed  a  statement  of  pon- 
tificial  ritual,  therefore,  as  semimas  ovis  Ovid  would  scarcely  have 
written,  had  not  the  word  vervex  stood  before  him  in  the  source 
which  he  used.  Thus  this  line  of  Ovid  is  corroborated  by  the 
Acta  Fratrum  Arvalium,  our  most  authoritative  epigraphic  source 
on  sacrifices  in  ancient  Rome,  and  this  combined  testimony  is 
arrayed  against  the  apparent  evidence  of  Ovid's  line  on  the  agna, 
Varro's  vindemia  passage  and  what  Paulus  and  Macrobius  write 
about  the  ovis  Idulis. 

Modern  scholarship  has  failed  to  reach  a  definite  conclusion 
regarding  the  sex  of  this  victim.  While  Klausen  (Aeneas  und  die 
Penaten,  p.  930)  says  "agna  opima,"  and  Aust  (Die  Religion  der 
Romer,  p.  168)  "ein  mannliches  Schaf,"  Samter  says  merely  "em 
Schaf,"15  C.  Julian  in  Daremberg  et  Saglio16  "un  mouton,"  and 
Wissowa17  "ein  weisses  Schaf  (ovis  Idulis)  "  while  elsewhere  he 
is  quite  explicit,  that  at  the  Agonium,  for  example,  the  sacrifice 
was  "ein  Widder"  and  at  the  suovetaurilia  a  "Schaf bock."18 

There  are  several  passages  in  the  surviving  literature  which 
point  to  a  common  gender  for  ovis  like  bos,  that  is,  that  the 
modifiers  were  either  masculine  or  feminine  adjectives  and  pro- 
nouns, according  to  the  sex  of  the  particular  animal  under  con- 
sideration.19 They  are  as  follows :  Festus  (p.  286)  : 


11  Henzen,  pp.  CLXXXVI  and  CCXIV. 

14  Cf.  F.  I,  318  and  333-34;  Varro  L.  L.  VI.  12. 

15  In  Paul.-Wiss.,  VoL  VI,  p.  2491. 
"Vol.  II.,  p.  1162. 

17  p.  114  of  Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer. 
"pp.  103  and  142. 

18  F.  IV,  631 :  "Forda  ferens  bos  est,  fecundaque  dicta  ferendo";  Act.  Fr. 
Arv.,  p.  CLXXXVIII  bovem  feminam;  et  al.    Cato  Origines,  103 :  "Trim 
boves;  Ov.  F.,  Ill,  732,  "Deque  triumphato  viscera  tosta  bove";  et  al. 


37 

"Etiam  in  commentariis  sacrorum  pontificalium  frequenter  est 
hie  ovis  et  haec  agnus  ac  porcus,  quae  non  ut  vitia,  sed  ut  antiquam 
consuetudinem  testantia  debemus  accipere," 
and  Gellius  (XI,  1,  4)  quoting  Varro: 

"Quando  nunc  quoque  a  magistratibus  populi  Romani  more 
maiorum  multa  dicitur  vel  minima  vel  suprema,  observari  solet, 
ut  oves  genere  virili  appellentur;  atque  ita  M.  Varro  verba  haec 
legitima,  quibus  minima  multa  diceretur,  concepit:  'M.  Terentio, 
quando  citatus  neque  respondit  neque  excusatus  est,  ego  ei  unum 
ovem  multam  dico/  Ac  nisi  eo  genere  diceretur  negaverunt 
kistam  videri  multam." 

Again  Paulus  (p.  195)  says: 

"Ovem  masculine  genere  dixerunt,  ut  ovibus  duobus  non 
duabus." 

From  these  examples  it  will  be  seen  that  the  use  of  ovis  as  a 
common  gender  noun  suggests  that  the  excerpts  from  Paulus  (p. 
104),  ovis  quae,  and  from  Macrobius  (I,  15,  16),  ovis  quam,  refer 
to  female  victims.  But  I  shall  show  that  the  ovis  Idulis  was  a 
male,  and  hence  the  common  gender  theory  does  not  furnish  the 
correct  explanation  of  these  two  prose  passages. 

Equally  suggestive  with  this  study  of  nouns  of  common  gender 
is  a  study  of  the  gender  of  pronouns  with  nouns  of  unquestion- 
able gender.  I  find  no  examples  of  feminine  relatives  modifying 
masculine  nouns  and  but  one  reliable  instance  of  the  opposite 
process.20  There  is  also,  however,  a  passage  in  Varro's  de  Lingua 
Latina*1  in  which  the  manuscripts  give  the  reading  quorum 
after  a  feminine  antecedent,  though  the  vulgate  and  two  earlier 
editors22  print  quorum.  This  antecedent,  it  should  be  stated,  is 
haec,  plural  of  the  demonstrative ;  not  the  neuter  plural,  however, 
but  an  old  form  of  the  feminine.23  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  it 
contains  certain  serious  corruptions,  the  passage  may  throw  light 
on  the  two  prose  references24  to  the  ovis  Idulis,  and  shall,  there- 
fore be  quoted : 


20  Pompeii  Commentum,  p.  249  (Keil  V,  p.  206)  :  "Quis  tu  es  mulier  qui 
me  hoc  nuncupasti  nomine". 

21  V,  98. 

22  Mulier  and  Lindemann. 

23  See  Miiller's  edition  on  the  passage  and  Sommer  Laut  und  Formen- 
lehre,  p.  423  in  2d  ed. 

24  See  preceding  page,  p.  35,  and  notes  11  and  12. 


38 

"Aries  qui  team  dicebant  ares,  veteres  nostri  ariuga,  hinc 
ariugas.25  Haec  sunt  quorum  in  sacruficiis  exta  in  olla  non  in 
veru  coquuntur,  quas  et  Accius  scribit  et  in  pontificiis  libris 
videmus." 

The  first  thing  to  be  noted  here  after  the  hardly  explainable  cor- 
ruption qui,  is  the  gender  of  earn,  which,  if  it  is  really  an  accusa- 
tive form  of  the  demonstrative  is  ea  id,  refers  to  aries.  The  vul- 
gate,  followed  by  Miiller,  prints  quod  eum.  In  view  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  line,  however,  I  shall  not  attempt  an  argument  on 
this  pronoun,  but  wish  merely  to  direct  attention  to  it.  The 
point  desired  to  emphasize  particularly  is  that,  although  the 
word  ariuga  or  arviga  was  bestowed  a  great  part  of  the  time 
on  males,  its  gender  is  shown  by  the  forms  haec  and  quas  to 
be  feminine.  The  word  hostia,  though  covering  both  male  and 
female  victims,  is  well  known  to  have  but  one  gender,  feminine, 
and  after  a  careful  perusal  of  the  surviving  passages  relating  to 
arviga,26  I  can  see  no  other  meaning  in  the  word  than  that  it  was 
a  special  kind  of  hostia,  referring  very  frequently  to  the  male, 
but  properly  modified  at  all  times  by  the  feminine  of  the  pronoun. 
This  arviga  passage  constitutes,  as  it  were,  a  bridge  over  which 
we  pass  to  the  real  solution  of  the  problem  confronting  us  in 
this  chapter. 

There  is  a  class  of  animal  names  known  as  epicenes  from  the 
Greek  e7rtx,otvo<;  which  have  but  one  word  form  and  one  gram- 
matical gender  to  denote  both  sexes,  some  words  of  this  class 
being  masculine,  some  feminine,  as  hie  passer,  haec  aquila21 


25  The  text  followed  is  that  of  Goetz  and  Schoell.    The  most  serious  and 
unmistakable  corruption  is  in  qui  and  earn,  for  which  Goetz  and  Schoell, 
though  printing  the  reading  of  the  best  MS.,  offer  the  emendation  quidam. 
The  more  recent  MSS.  and  the  Thesaurus  give  arviga  rather  than  ariuga; 
Paul.  (p.  100)  harviga. 

26  Varro  L.  L.,  V,  98 :   the  part  quoted  above  and  "In  hostiis  earn  dicunt 
ariugem  quae  cornua  habeat";  Paul.,  p.  100;  Velius  Longus  (Keil,  VII,  73, 
9)   "Ar(v)iga  quae  est  hostia." 

27  Lane,  Latin  Grammar,  revised  ed.,  paragraph  411,  gives  the  following 
definition :  "Epicenes  have  one  ending  and  one  grammatical  gender,  though 
applicable  to  animals  of  either  sex.     Thus  aquila,  eagle,  is  feminine,  though 
it  may  denote  a  he-eagle  as  well  as  a  she-eagle;  anates,  ducks,  feminine, 
includes  drakes."    See  also  for  definitions  Diom,  I,  276  (Keil,  I,  301,  10)  ; 
Charisius,  II,  89  (Keil,  I,  153,  15)  ;  Donatus  (Keil,  IV,  375,  22)  ;  etc.,  and 
cf.  Neue-Wagener  Formenlehre,  I,  p.  926  sqq. 


39 

One  of  the  many  good  definitions  is  that  of  Charisius,  I,  8  (Keil 
I,  17,  10)  : 

"Adicitur.  .  .genus  quod  Graece  erctaotvov  dicitur,  Latine  pro- 
miscuum,  ut  haec  mustela,  aquila.  Nam  etsi  mas  sit  mustela  vel 
aquila,  tamen  feminine  genere  tantum  dicitur.  Item  hie  passer 
quamvis  masculine  genere  proferatur,  tamen  etiam  femininum 
genus  significat." 

Neue-Wagener28  say  "the  names  of  most  animals  belong  to 
this  class,  generally  of  the  smaller  animals,  but  especially  those 
in  which  there  is  no  occasion  to  differentiate  the  male  from  the 
female."  A  few  animals  of  considerable  size  are  epicene,  how- 
ever, for  volpes,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  is  decidedly  so,  and 
panthera  is  shown  to  be  so  by  Cicero,  by  Pliny,  by  Fhaedrus,  and 
finally  by  Varro.29  Furthermore  a  marked  differentiation  of  sex 
is  sometimes  made,  as,  for  example,  in  the  expression  et  mas 
et  femina  aquila™  which  does  not  indicate  a  different  gram- 
matical gender,31  and  in  Pliny's  expression  volpis  masculae,32 
where  the  form  of  the  adjective  masculae  shows  that  the  gram- 
matical gender  of  volpis  is  feminine,  but  the  adjective  itself 
proves  the  animal  to  be  unmistakably  male.  But  the  most  com- 
mon use  of  epicenes  is  in  passages  where  the  animal  mentioned 


™'Formenlehre,  I,  p.  927  sqq.  They  furnish  quite  a  long  list  (p.  927)  of 
each  gender,  including  among  the  feminines  panthera,  volpes,  bidens  (the 
sheep),  avis,  anas,  aquila,  merula,  and  apis. 

29  Pliny,  N.  H.,  VIII,  62  and  63 ;  Phaedrus,  III,  2 :    "Panthera  et  Pas- 
tores",  where  nothing  is  implied  as  to  the  animal's  sex.    Cicero,  Epist.  ad 
Pam.  VIII,  9,  3 :  "Fere  litteris  omnibus  tibi  de  pantheris  scripsi :  turpe  tibi 
erit  Patiscum  Curioni   decem  pantheras  misisse,  te  non  multis  partibus 
plures ;  quas  ipsas  Curio  mihi  et  alias  Af  ricanas  decem  donavit,  ne  putes 
ilium  tantum  praedia  rustica  dare  scire".     For  the  Varro  passage  see  p. 
40  above. 

30  Varro,  L.  L.,  VIII,  2,  7. 

81  Neue-Wagener,  I,  p.  919.  Priscian,  V,  8,  42  (Keil,  II,  p.  169)  states 
that  in  the  earliest  times  aquila  was  of  common  gender;  but  in  classical 
times,  at  least,  we  find  no  more  epicene  word  in  the  language.  It  is  quoted 
as  a  stock  example  of  the  epicene  in  all  the  definitions  above  quoted  or 
cited  (see  note  27  and  note  28).  In  Serv.  ad  Aen.  I,  394,  Interpol.  Serv. 
ad  Eel.,  VI,  42,  Suet.  Aug.  96,  etc.,  it  is  an  epicene  with  nothing  implied 
as  to  sex. 

98  N.  H.,  XXVIII,  166;  for  gender,  also  see  Phaedrus. 


40 

may  be  either  male  or  female,  or  in  the  case  of  a  group,  the  refer- 
ence may  be  to  beasts  of  both  sexes;  in  other  words,  where  the 
reference  to  sex  is  wholly  indefinite.  This  is  best  shown  by  a 
long  passage  from  Varro  (L.  L.  IX,  55  sqq.),33  which  it  will  be 
well  to  bear  in  mind  throughout  the  remainder  of  this  dissertation. 

"Negant,  cum  omnis  natura  sit  aut  mas  aut  f  emina  aut  neutrum, 
(non)  debuisse  ex  singulis  vocibus  ternas  figuras  vocabulorum 
fieri,  ut  albus,  alba,  album;  nunc  fieri  in  multis  rebus  binas,  ut 
Metellus,  Metella  .  .  .,  nonnulla  singula,  .  .  .  ;  dici  cor- 
vum,  turdum,  non  dici  corvam,  turdam;  contra  dici  pantheram, 
merulam,  non  dici  patherum,  merulum,  .  .  .  Ad  h(a)ec  dici- 
mus  omnis  orationis,  quamvis  res  naturae  subsit,  tamen  si  ea  in 
usu(m)  non  pervenerit,  eo  non  pervenire  verba;  ideo  equus 
dicitur  et  equa:  in  usu  enim  horum  discrimina;  corvus  et  corva 
non,  quod  sine  usu  id  quod  dissimilis  natura (e).  Itaque  quaedam 
al(i)ter  olim  ac  nunc;  nam  et  turn  rimnes  mares  et  feminae 
dicebantur  columbae,  quod  non  erant  fci  eo  usu  domestico  quo 
nunc,  (nunc)  contra  propter  domesticos  usus  quod  internovimus, 
appellatur  mas  columbus,  femina  columba." 

These  animal  words  are  not  discussed  as  nouns  of  common 
gender  and  of  one  declension,  as  hie  or  haec  corvus  and  turdns,  hie 
or  haec  panthera  and  merula.  The  evidence  proves  them  unmis- 
takably to  be  epicenes.  First  of  all  let  us  note  the  testimony  of 
other  passages  on  the  animal  names  chosen.  Varro  himself  says 
(R.  R.  Ill,  5,  6)  : 

"Turdi,  qui  cum  sint  nomine  mares,  re  vera  feminae  quoque 
sunt.  Neque  id  non  secutum  ut  esset  in  merulis,  quae  nomine 
feminine  mares  quoque  sint." 

Here,  though  omitting  the  designation  epicene,  he  shows  em- 
phatically that  such  is  the  usage  of  the  words  turdus  and  merula. 
Again,  corvus  is  defined  by  name  as  epicene  (promiscuus)  by 
Consensus  (Ars,  Keil  V,  30)  : 

"In  promiscuis  .  .  .  sub  uno  articulo  uterque  sexus  signifi- 
catur.  Nam  cum  dico  masculino  genere  corvus,  neque  nomine 
neque  articulo  confusionem  generis  separare  possum:  tarn  enim 
femina  quam  masculus  corvus  masculino  genere  enuntiatur.  Item 


33  Text  of  Goetz  and  Schoell ;  cf.  with  Servius'  Commentary  on  Donatus, 
p.  1782  (Keil,  IV,  408). 


41 

cum  dico  cornix,  sexum  nulla  ratione  discernere  possum,  quoniam, 
sive  masculus  sive  femina  sit,  feminine  genere  cornicem  appello. 
Nam  in  corvo  f  emininum  et  in  cornice  masculinum  genus  intellegi 
necesse  est." 

That  panthera  too  is  epicene  is  perceived  both  by  its  use  in 
the  various  passages  above  cited34  and  by  its  choice  in  the  lines  of 
the  de  Lingua  Latina  (IX,  55  sqq.)  to  accompany  coruus,  turdus, 
and  merula.  But  Varro's  own  words  prove  that  he  is  discussing 
epicenes,  not  nouns  of  common  gender.  It  will  be  best  to  restate 
this  portion  of  the  passage  *in  translation : 

"We  say  that,  although  all  language  is  based  upon  distinctions 
arising  from  conditions  in  the  natural  world,  yet  if  these  natural 
conditions  are  turned  to  no  practical  employment  by  man,  such 
distinctions  fail  to  be  expressed  in  speech ;  therefore  we  have  the 
words  equus  and  equa,  for  there  is  a  distinction  in  the  way  these 
two  words  are  employed ;  on  the  contrary,  we  do  not  say  corvus 
and  corva,  for  a  discrimination  of  sex  is  here  of  no  practical 
benefit.  For  this  reason  certain  words  were  formerly  differently 
used  from  the  manner  of  their  employment  to-day;  at  one  time, 
for  example,  all  pigeons,  male  and  female,  were  called  columbae, 
because  they  were  not  put  to  that  domestic  use  to  which  they 
are  now  given  over.  Now,  however,  for  domestic  purposes,  we 
make  a  distinction,  calling  the  male  pigeon  columbus,  the  female, 
columba." 

If  Varro  were  here  discussing  common  gender,  hie  and  haec 
corvus,  for  instance,  the  natural  condition  of  the  bird,  male  or 
female,  would  be  every  whit  as  distinctly  expressed  by  the  pro- 
noun as  if  the  termination  in  -a  'had  been  employed  to  differ- 
entiate the  female  and  that  in  -us  had  been  confined  to  the  male. 

Since  beyond  doubt  this  passage  of  Varro  is  a  discussion 
of  epicenes,  attention  must  once  more  be  called  to  my  state- 
ment made  immediately  before  the  passage  was  quoted,  namely, 
that  epicene  names  for  animals  commonly  show  that  there 
is  no  definite  thought  of  sex  in  the  writer's  mind.  This  is 
the  whole  point  of  Varro's  definition;  that  man  does  not 
make  a  linguistic  division  based  on  the  sex  of  animals,  unless 
there  is  practical  need  of  a  distinction.  The  names  of  most 


See  n.  29. 


42 

animals,  therefore,  are  epicene,  and  the  use  of  epicenes  seldom 
offers  any  direct  information  concerning  their  sex.  Varro,  how- 
ever, has  neglected  to  mention  that  his  rule  of  vagueness  must 
admit  of  occasional  exceptions,  in  which  an  epicene  is  proved  to 
be  of  a  sex  directly  opposite  to  that  indicated  by  its  grammatical 
gender.  A  step  in  this  direction  appears  in  the  scholiast  to 
Germanicus'  Aratea,  "lovem  in  aquilam  transfiguratum"35  and 
in  Apuleius'  Metamorphoses  III,  25,  "non  avem  me  sed  asinum 
video."  In  both  of  these  selections  the  bird  is  certainly  a  male, 
because  in  either  case  a  male  has  been  metamorphosed.  Yet  in 
all  extant  literature  aquila  and  avis  are  of  feminine  gender.88 
The  most  perfect  illustration  of  the  employment  of  an  epicene 
in  unquestionable  reference  to  the  sex  opposed  to  its  grammatical 
gender  is  volpis  masculae  in  Plir^y  (N.  H.  XXVIII,  166), 
which  has  already  been  noted.  This  development  produces  the 
purest  epicene,  and  is  the  logical  outcome  of  the  more  common 
usage  in  which  the  sex  is  not  distinctly  specified.  It  would  seem 
possible  only  in  the  case  of  true  epicenes,  if  such  a  term  may  be 
employed ;  that  is,  of  words  which  have  only  one  grammatical 
gender,  like  volpes,  merula,  corvus,  panthera,  aquila,  and  avis.™ 
Now  aquila  has  been  shown  to  be  a  true  and  unquestionable 
epicene.  Therefore,  when  we  read  in  Varro  (L.  L.  VIII,  2,  7} 
et  mas  et  femina  aquila,  there  is  every  reason  to  agree  with 
Neue-Wagener,38  that  the  expression  does  not  indicate  a  differ- 
ence of  grammatical  gender.  It  is  not  to  be  regarded,  then,  as 
identical  with  the  similar  epithets  applied  to  bos,  which  has  been 
seen  to  be  of  common  gender,  but  aquila  mas  is  in  a  class  with 
volpis  masculae  of  Pliny.39  I  likewise  believe  that  this  is  the 
very  manner  in  which  ovis  mas  is  employed  by  Varro  (L.  L.  V, 
98),  "si  cui  ovi  mari  testiculi  dempti  et  ideo  vi  natura  versa, 


35  Breysig,  p.  160. 

36  See  Thesaurus  and  cf.  note  28  and  note  31. 

17  Later  on  it  will  be  shown  that  certain  words  which  are  by  no  means 
true  epicenes,  are  sometimes  employed  after  the  manner  of  epicenes,  when 
nothing  is  implied  as  to  their  sex. 

38 Seen.  31. 

89  See  n.  32. 


43 

verbex  declinatum,"  and  by  Ovid  in  the  expression40  semimaris 
ovis.  In  other  words,  it  will  presently  be  shown  that  the  word 
ovis  is  epicene. 

It  will  at  once  be  objected  that  the  passages  of  Gellius  (XI,  1,  4) 
and  Festus  (p.  286),  which  record  the  words  of  Varro  and  Ver- 
rius  respectively  and  have  been  quoted  earlier  in  this  work,41 
show  the  gender  of  ovis  to  be  common.  It  must  be  observed, 
however,  that  Varro  so  uses  it  only  in  an  antiquated  legal 
formula,  and  that  Gellius^and  Festus  mention  the  usage  only  to 
explain  it,  because  in  their  day  it  was  strange  and  unusual.  Not 
only  was  this  common  gender  for  ovis  a  curiosity  in  classical 
Latin,  but,  if  we  remember  Varro's  rule  illustrated  by  columba*2 
I  think  I  am  justified  in  the  conjecture  that  ovis  began  in  the 
earliest  times  as  a  feminine  epicene  for  the  sheep  kind  without 
distinction  of  sex,  just  as  it  will  be  proven  to  be  in  historic  times; 
that  this  usage  persisted,  but  in  the  course  of  development  in  the 
still  prehistoric  Latin  the  usage  in  common  gender,  hie  and  haec 
ovis,  arose  in  those  cases  where  a  differentiation  of  male  and 
female  was  important,  especially  in  religious  ritual,  where  with 
the  advent  of  animal  sacrifices  and  the  offering  of  male  victims 
to  male  divinities  and  female  to  female,  practical  necessity  com- 
pelled a  distinction  in  sex  to  be  observed.  While  in  historic 
times,  owing  to  the  limitations  of  the  Latin  vocabulary,  ovis  was 
retained  as  the  particular  term  for  the  ewe,  and  dries  and  vervex 
instead  of  hie  ovis  became  the  more  common  and  conventional 
terms  for  "ram"  and  "wether,"  ovis  remained  (as  it  had  always 
been)  the  general  name  for  the  sheep  kind,  like  the  English 
sheep  and  the  German  Schaf.  So  much  for  my  conjecture.  It 
will  now  be  shown  that  in  the  classical  period  ovis  was  the  generic 
term  for  sheep  and  that  its  gender  was  feminine. 

Cicero  says  (N.  D.  II,  63)  : 

"Quid  enim  oves  aliud  afferunt,  nisi  ut  earum  villis  confectis 
atque  contextis  homines  vestiantur"? 

This  is  supplemented  by  Isidorus,  Origines  XII,  1,  8-9: 

"Discretio  est  autem  inter  armenta  et  greges:  nam  armentn 


40  F.  I,  588. 

4J  See  pp.  36  and  37  above. 

42  See  p.  40  above. 


44 

equorum  et  bourn  sunt,  greges  vero  caprarum  et  ovium  .  .  . 
Apud  veteres  initio  non  tauri  sed  oves  in  sacrificio  mactarentur. 
.  .  .  Vervex  ...  a  viribus  dictus,  quod  ceteris  ovibus  sit 
fortior." 

Note  especially  the  last  words,  "Vervex  .  .  .  ceteris  ovibus 
sit  fortior,"  which,  taken  in  connection  with  the  Cicero  passage 
just  quoted  and  with  Columella  VII,  4,43  prove  that  the  ancient 
flocks,  like  those  of  to-day,44  were  made  up  of  both  ewes  and 
wethers,  the  latter  being  slaughtered  while  their  flesh  was  still 
tender,  but  after  they  had  yielded  a  goodly  supply  of  wool.  In 
these  passages  of  Cicero  and  Isidorus,  ovis  can  signify  but  one 
thing,  the  sheep  kind  as  a  whole4  Isidorus  moreover  says  in  the 
same  selection: 

"Ex  his  (sc.  ovibus)  quasdam  bidentes  vocant,  eas  quae  inter 
octo  dentes  duos  altiores  habent,  quas  rrtaxime  gentiles  in  sacri- 
ficium  offerebant." 

Here  and  also  in  the  Cicero  quotation  (earum),  the  feminine 
gender  of  ovis  as  well  as  its  general  meaning  is  well  illustrated. 
Further  excellent  examples  are  the  Pseudo-Acron  scholiast  to 
Horace  (C.  Ill,  23,  14)  : 

"Bidentes  autem  proprie  dicuntur  oves  duos  annos  habentes, 
sic  vocatae  ab  eminentioribus  dentibus,  qui  circa  duos  annos  nas- 
cuntur,"  and  Servius  (ad  A  en.  VI,  39)  : 

"Bidentes  autem,  ut  diximus  supra  (IV,  57)  oves  sunt  circa 
bimatum,  habentes  duos  dentes  eminentiores ;  quae  erant  aptae 
sacrificiis."45 


J  "Plures  autem  in  eiusmodi  gregibus,  quam  in  hirtis,  masculos  enutrire 
oportet.  Nam  priusquam  feminas  inire  possint  mares  castrati,  cum  bima- 
tum expleverint,  enecantur,  et  pelles  eorum  propter  pulchritudinem  lanae 
maiore  pretio,  quam  alia  vellera,  mercantibus  traduntur". 

44  Farmers'  Cyclopedia,  abridged  agricultural  records  from  publications 
of  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agric.  and  Experiment  Stations,  Vol.  I,  p.  368:   (On 
eastern  Nevada  sheep   raising)  :     "They    (the  sheep)    usually  reach  the 
shearing  grounds    .    .    .   about  the  first  of  April.    The  sheep  are  then  sepa,- 
rated  into  ewe  bands  and  wether  bands,  the  ewes  and  their  lambs  of  the 
previous  year  having  run  together  during  the  winter.       .    .    Two  crops  of 
wool  are  also  obtained  from  each  lamb,  as  they  are  not  usually  sold  until 
about  two  years  old  (Cf.  Columella's  bimatum) ,  which  differs  from  the 
practice  in  the  Sierras".    The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  (1911  ed.,  article  on 
Agriculture)   I,  p.  408,  speaks  of  wether  sheep  above  twelve  and  under 
twenty- four  months  old. 

45  Also  Paul,  p.  4;  Cell.  XVI,  6,   12.     Bidens  is  recognized  by  Neue- 
Wagener  as  an  epicene  (I  p.  927). 


45 

These  last  passages  have  to  do  with  bidentes,  which  are  seen  to 
be  sheep  of  an  age  sufficiently  advanced  to  display  a  certain 
phenomenon  in  their  teeth.  This  phenomenon,  however,  is  not 
confined  to  the  female,  but  appears  equally  in  the  male. 

Ovis,  therefore,  is  epicene,  and,  moreover,  a  true  epicene,  like 
volpes,  aquila  ,  merula,  avis,  panthera,  corvus,  and  others.46  It  is 
epicene,  because  it  has  just  been  proved  to  be  the  generic  term  for 
sheep  without  thought  of  sex,  to  have  only  one  grammatical  gen- 
der, feminine,47  and  yet,  as  a  true  epicene,  to  be  carried  to  its 
logical  development,  so  that  on  a  few  occasions,  such  as  we  have 
encountered  in  Ovid,48  and  in  Varro,49  it  is  employed  strictly  of 
the  male. 

If  we  return,  then,  for  one  moment  from  the  study  of  epicenes 
to  our  subject  of  the  sacra  Idulia,  it  will  be  recalled  that  Roman 
ritual  required  the  sacrifice  of  male  animals  to  male  divinities  and 
of  female  to  female.  The  actual  ritualistic  custom  is  thus  seen 
to  be  quite  in  accord  with  the  words  of  Paulus  and  Macrobius,50 
who,  although  they  apply  the  correct  gender  of  the  relative  pro- 
noun in  writing  "Idulis  ovis  .  .  .  quae"  and  "ab  ove  Iduli 
.  .  .  quam,"  do  so  with  no  more  thought  of  sex  than  did 
Varro  (L.  L.  V,  98)  in  writing  "Haec  (sc.  arvigae)  sunt  .  .  . 
quas";  for  arviga,  though  a  hostia  and  of  feminine  gender,  was 
often  used  of  the  ram.51  The  sex  of  the  ovis  Idulis  was  male, 
therefore,  as  is  to  be  expected  in  a  sacrifice  to  Jupiter. 

It  remains  to  discuss  Ovid's  use  of  the  feminine  form  agna  in 
Fasti  I,  56. .  This  in  itself  would  not  offer  serious  difficulty,  for 
had  it  suited  his  purpose,  Ovid  might  not  have  hesitated  to  write 
agiw,,  even  if  bearing  definitely  in  mind  the  female  significance  of 
the  termination  in  -a.  Vergil  in  his  famous  line  (Aen.  VIII,  641), 


wNo  matter  that  it  often  means  the  ewe,  for  we  know  that  even  so 
widely  recognized  an  epicene  as  avis  frequently  refers  to  the  female  bird 
alone,  e.  g.  Cic.  N,  D.  II,  129 :  "Gallinae  avesque  reliquae  .  .  .  quietum 
requirunt  ad  pariendum  locum";  Plin.  N.  H.  X,  147:  "Ceterae  aves  semel 
anno  (pariunt)";  X,  165:  "nee  alia  (avis)  plures  (quam  XX  pullos  parit)". 

47  Except  in  a  few  legal  survivals  of  prehistoric  times. 

48  F.  I,  588. 
"L.  L.  V,98. 

50  Paul.  p.  104;  Macrob.  I,  15,  16.    See  page  35  above. 

51  See  above  p.  38. 


46 

"caesa  iungebant  foedera  porca,"  may  employ  porca  in  this  man- 
ner, inasmuch  as  the  commentators  mentioned  as  quidam  by  the 
interpolator  of  Servius,  explain  porca  on  the  ground  of  euphony.52 
Perhaps  the  quidam  mentioned  in  the  interpolation  of  Servius  are 
Quintilian  and  Porphyrio,  the  commentator  on  Horace.  The  lat- 
ter says  :53 

"Adtende  feminino  genere  agnam  maluisse  dicere  quam  agnum 
secundum  illud  Vergilianum :  'Et  caesa  iungebant  foedera  porca' ; 
nescio  quid  enim  quaedam  eloquutiones  per  femininum  genus 
gratiores  fiunt." 

Quintilian's  words  are  (fnst.  VIII,  3,  19)  : 

"Quaedam  non  tam  ratione  quam  sensu  iudicantur;  ut  illud, 
'caesa  iungebant  foedera  porca/  fecit  elegans  fictio  nominis ;  quod 
si  fuisset  porco,  vile  erat." 

These  three  explanations  of  the  feminine  form  in  -a  on  the 
ground  of  euphony  are  good  as  far  as  they  go,54  but  they  hardly 
account  for  Varro's  mention  of  the  offering  of  an  agna  to  Jupiter 
at  the  auspicatio  vindemiae  or  for  what  Gellius  writes  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  a  capra  to  Vediovis.  Once  more  it  becomes  necessary  to 
fall  back  on  epicenes. 

First  of  all  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  there  are  certain  words 
which,  though  not  strictly  of  the  epicene  class,  in  that  they  admit 
both  genders,  are  nevertheless  often  employed  in  the  epicene 
manner  described  by  Varro,55  namely,  in  a  vague,  general  sense 
referring  to  either  or  both  sexes.  Their  gender  is  arbitrarily 
chosen,  being  sometimes  masculine,  sometimes  feminine,  but  there 
is  no  thought  of  sex  in  the  writer's  mind. 


52  Serv.  Interpol.  ad  Aen  VIII,  641 :  "Quidam  'porcam'  euphoniae  gratia 
dictam  volunt". 

58  C.  I,  4,  12. 

64  Servius  himself  (ad  Aen  VIII,  641),  after  recognizing  that  ritualistic 
observance  called  for  porco,  gropes  about  in  a  maze  of  explanations  for  the 
use  of  the  feminine :  "Falso  autem  ait  'porca' :  nam  ad  hoc  genus  sacrificii 
porcus  adhibebatur.  Ergo  aut  usurpavit  genus  pro  genere  ut  'timidi 
venient  ad  pocula  dammae',  cum  has  dammas  dicamus,  item  supra  (631) 
lupam  cum  artis  sit  'hie'  et  'haec'  lupus.  Aut  certe  illud  ostendit,  quia 
.  .  .  ' '  From  this  point  on  see  note  8  above,  which  also  notes  the  unre- 
liability of  this  passage  in  questions  of  ritual. 

55  L.  L.  IX,  55.    See  above  p.  40. 


47 

One  word  notably  so  employed  is  cants,  which  is  ordinarily  of 
common  gender  because  the  natural  difference  of  sex  is  so  often 
forced  upon  one's  attention  owing  to  the  intimate  association  of 
dog  and  man.  When  employed  with  absolutely  no  thought,  how- 
ever, of  male  and  female,  the  gender  of  canis  is  determined  accord- 
ing to  the  writer's  whim  or  preference.  A  few  examples  will 
suffice :  Varro  (R.  R.  II,  9,  6)  in  discussing  the  purchase  of  dogs 
uses  the  masculine  gender: 

"Magni  interest  ex  semine  esse  canes  eodem,  quod  cognati  max- 
ime  inter  se  sunt  praesidio,"  and  again  in  treating  of  their  food 
says  (II,  9,  8)  :  "Cibatus  canis  propior  hominus  .  .  .  Dili- 
genter  ut  habeat  cibaria  providendum.  Fames  enim  hos  ad 
quaerendum  cibum  ducet."  Once  more  in  regard  to  buying  dogs 
he  says  (11,9,5): 

"Videndum  ne  a  venatoribus  aut  laniis  canes  emas,  alteri  quod 
ad  pecus  sequendum  inertes;  alteri,  si  viderint  leporem  aut  cer- 
vum,  quod  eum  potius  quam  oves  sequentur.  Quare  a  pastoribus 
empta  melior,  quae  oves  sequi  consuevit,  aut  sine  ulla  consuetu- 
dine  quae  fuerit." 

In  this  passage  both  genders  are  used,  yet  each  time  dogs  are 
mentioned  the  reference  must  be  to  both  sexes.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  chapter  Varro  speaks  of  protecting  the  watchdogs  with 
collars  armed  with  nails, 

"quod  si  lupus  aliusve  quis  his  vulneratus  est,  reliquas  quoque 
canes  facit,  quae  id  non  habent,  ut  sint  in  tuto." 

In  these  words  both  sexes  are  referred  to  without  doubt,  and 
furthermore,  there  immediately  follows  a  discussion  of  the  num- 
ber of  dogs  necessary  for  the  flock,  and  we  meet  with  the  words : 

"Villatico  vero  gregi  in  fundum  satis  esse  duo,  et  id  marem  et 
feminam."  If  one  may  differentiate,  then,  between  the  word  and 
the  usage,  one  would  say  that  canis,  while  not  a  true  epicene, 
quite  frequently  receives  that  epicene  usage,  which  Varro  has 
described,  namely,  that  in  which  there  is  no  thought  of  sex.56 

Neue-Wagener  present  a  small  list  of  animal  names  with  the 
double  endings  in  -us  and  -a,  which  they  say57  are  epicenes  to  the 
extent  that  they  may  be  used  in  either  form  for  the  species  in 


"L.  L.  IX,  55.     See  above  p.  40. 
IT  I,  pp.  927-930. 


48 

general  without  reference  to  sex,  although  grammatically  those  in 
-us  are  masculine  and  those  in  -a  feminine.  A  good  example  of 
this  is  seen  in  Pliny  (N.  H.  VIII,  141)  : 

"Lacertae  inimicissimum  genus  cocleis,  negantur  semestrem 
vitam  excedere.  Lacerti  Arabiae  cubitales,  in  Indiae  vero  Nysa 
monte  XXIV  in  longitudinem  pedum,  colore  fulvi  aut  punicei,  aut 
caerulei,"  where,  whether  the  termination  be  in  -ae  or  in  -i,  the 
entire  species  is  meant,  including  both  sexes.  Another  word  of 
this  type  is  simius,  simia,  the  latter  being  the  commoner,58  but 
simius  appearing  in  Phaedrus'  fable  of  the  wolf,  the  fox,  and 
the  ape.59 

Varro60  tells  us  that  the  word  columba  was  originally  an  epicene, 
and  that  when  the  pigeon  came  into  wide  domestic  use  and  man 
found  it  convenient  to  differentiate  between  the  sexes,  the  mascu- 
line form,  columbus,  was  introduced  for  the  sake  of  distinction. 
We  find,  however,  that  in  those  instances  where  this  word  is 
employed  indefinitely  without  sex  distinction,  the  form  in  -a  is 
usually  retained.61  Sometimes,  on  the  contrary,  we  meet  with  the 
masculine,  columbi.62  Either  form  of  this  word  can  thus  be 
given  the  epicene  usage,  although  the  form  in  -a  was  originally 
a  true  epicene. 

If  one  will  turn  now  to  the  word  agna,  and  that  with  which  it 
is  closely  associated,  porca,  attention  must  once  more  be  called 
to  my  translation  of  Varro's  definition63  (p.  41  above),  the 
point  of  which  is  that  man  does  not  make  a  linguistic  division 
based  on  the  animal's  sex  unless  there  is  a  practical  need  of  such 
distinction.  Much  of  the  time  there  is  a  manifest  need  of  distin- 
guishing the  sexes  of  agnus  and  agna,  porcus  and  pored,  as  in  the 
cases  of  equus  and  equa,  columbus  and  columba,  mentioned  by 


"  Plin.  VIII,  54,  215. 

69  Phaedr.  I,  10. 

"  See  n.  56. 

61  Only  one  or  two  examples  will  be  quoted  here:  Plin.  X,  35:  "Columbae 
et  turtures  octonis  annis  vivont".  Varro  R.  R.  Ill,  2,  13:  "alterum  (sc. 
genus  pastionum)  villaticum  in  quo  sunt  gallinae  ac  columbae  et  apes  et 
cetera",  and  14;  III,  5,  7:  "volucres  .  .  .  vernaculae  ut  gallinae  ac  colum- 
bae". 

0  Colum.  VIII,  8,  1 :  "palumbos  columbosque  cellares  pinguissimos 
facere";  and  10,  2:  "(Turdi)  locum  aeque  munitum  et  apricum,  quam 
columbi  desiderant". 

"  R.  R.  IX,  55. 


49 

Varro.64  On  the  other  hand,  as  in  the  case  of  columba,  so  the 
reference  in  agnus  or  porcus  is  often  only  generic,  with  absolutely 
no  thought  of  sex.  This  was,  we  have  seen,  the  original  use  of 
columba,65  and  it  was  retained  in  classical  literature  after  the  form 
columbus  had  come  into  use.66  Although  agnus  and  porcus  are 
used  so  very  frequently  of  the  male  alone,  there  are  a  number  of 
passages  in  which  they  are  employed  in  as  epicene  a  manner  as 
columba  is  known  to  have  been,  for  example,  Cicero  de  Senec. 
XVI,  56: 

"Villa     .     .     .     abundaCporco,  haedo,  agno,  gallina," 
and  Varro  on  several  occasions: 
R.  R.  II,  1,  20: 

"Fere  ad  quattuor  menses  a  mamma  non  disiunguntur  agni, 
haedi  tres,  porci  duo," 
R.R.  II,  2,  15: 

"Deinde  matres  cum  grege  pastum  prodeunt,  retinent  agnos, 
ad  quos  cum  reductae  ad  vesperum,  aluntur  lacte  et  rursus  dis- 
cernuntur," 
and  II,  2,  17: 

"Cum  depulsi  sunt  agni  a  matribus  diligentia  adhibenda  est  ne 
desiderio  senescant." 

Agnus  and  porcus  in  all  these  selections  must  refer  to  lambs 
and  pigs  in  general  without  thought  of  sex. 

There  survive  also  some  interesting  passages  showing  a  com- 
mon gender  for  agnus  and  porcus  in  the  earlier  times  and  in 
ritualistic  survivals.  The  first  of  these  (Festus,  p.  286)  has  been 
already  noticed  in  connection  with  the  antiquated  common  gender 
usage  of  ovis,*7  but  must  be  quoted  here  for  present  purposes : 

"Etiam  in  commentariis  sacrorum  pontificalium  frequenter  est 
hie  ovis  et  haec  agnus  ac  porcus,  quae  non  ut  vitia  sed  ut  antiquam 
consuetudinem  testantia  debemus  accipere." 

Perhaps  second  in  importance  is  Paulus  (p.  6)  : 

"Agnus  ex  Graeco  dpLvo?  deducitur,  quod  nomen  apud  maiores 
communis  erat  generis,  sictit  lupus/' 


"/?.  R.  IX,  55. 
"/?./?.  IX,  55. 

"  See  IL  59. 

"  See  p.  37  and  p.  43  above. 


50 

If  the  epithets  mas  and  femina  are  to  be  taken  as  indicative  of 
common  gender,  which  appears  to  be  their  most  frequent  usage, 
porcus  is  of  common  gender  in  Cato's  de  Agricultures, 
CXXXIV.  The  selection  is  too  long  for  quotation.  Although 
pertaining  to  private  ceremonial,  it  is  highly  ritualistic  and  most 
definite  in  recording  the  details  of  sacrifice  and  the  formulae  of 
prayer.  In  it  porcus  femina  and  pore  a  are  employed  several 
times  interchangeably.68  Festus  also  says  in  reference  to  a  law 
of  Numa  (p.  222)  : 

"Si  tanget  (sc.  pellex  aram  lunonis)  .  .  .  agnum  femi- 
nam  caedito." 

But  most  significant  for  the  present  argument  are  Festus'  words 
on  page  189,  in  which  he  seems  to  be  drawing  his  authority  from 
the  pontifical  books : 
•  "lanui  Quirino  agnum  marem  caedito." 

This  expression  has  its  counterpart  in  the  inscription  recording 
the  Ludi  Saeculares  of  17  B.  C.,  now  in  the  Terme  Museum.69 
That  section  which  relates  to  the  sacrifice  to  the  Moerae  contains 
the  words: 

"uti  huiusjsacrifici  acceptrices  sitis  VIIII  agnarum  feminarum 
et  VIIII  caprarufm  feminarum  propri]arum  inmolandarum ; 
harum  rerum  ergo  macte  hac  agna  femina  inmolanda  estote  fitote 
v[olente]s  propitiae,"  etc. 

The  words  hac  agna  femina  exclude  any  other  interpretation 
than  that  of  common  gender  for  agna  in  this  passage,  although  it 
is  the  only  surviving  passage  in  which  agna  is  so  employed.70 

If  now  it  be  permissable  to  turn  for  a  moment  to  poetry,  a  line 
of  Ovid  will  be  found  of  particular  interest  (Fasti,  IV,  648)  : 

88  With  this  passage  cf .  Cicero  de  Leg.  II,  22,  57. 

69  C  I  L.  VI,  42,  32323. 

70  Feminam  agnam  quoted  by  Augustine  from  Leviticus  (Quaestionum 
in  Heptateuchum  Libri  VII  in  the  Corpus  Scriptorum  Ecclesiasticorum 
Latinorum,  Vienna   1895,  3,  3,  p.  236)    is  a  translation  of  the  original 
Hebrew,  not  a  Latin  usage.    As  quoted  by  Augustine  the  passage  reads : 
'Offeret  pro  his  quae  deliquit  domino,  pro  peccato  quo  peccavit  feminam 
ab  ovibus  agnam',  and  with  this  cf.  the  translation  made  at  London  in 
1580  from  the  Hebrew:    "Itaque  adducito  reatum  suum  Jehove  propter 
peccatum  suum  quo  peccabit  foeminam  e  grege  pvem",  and  King  James 
translation  into  English:    "And  he  shall  bring  his  trespass  offering  unto 
the  Lord  for  his  sin  which  he  hath  sinned,  a  female  from  the  flock,  a 
lamb".      Augustine's    comment   is:     "usitata    locutione    'agnam    feminam' 
dicit,  quasi  possit  esse  non  femina". 


51 

"Agnaque  nascendo  saepe  necabat  ovem." 
While  the  form  in  -a  may  well  be  chosen  by  the  poet  for 
stylistic  purposes,  yet  it  refers  as  clearly  to  the  male  as  to  the 
ewe  lamb  and  forms  a  striking  counterpart  to  the  epicene  use  of 
agnus  and  porcus  in  Cicero71  and  Varro72  quoted  above.  Prose 
passages  in  which  agna  and  porca  are  employed  as  epicenes  are 
few,  but  that  of  Paulus  (p.  235)  is  highly  important: 

"Porci  effigies  inter  militaria  signa  quintum  locum  obtinebat, 
quia  confecto  bello  inter  quos  pax  fieret,  caesa  porca  foedus  fir- 
mare  solebant." 

Porci  effigies  seems  to  be  a  clear  reference  to  the  boar,  for 
Pliny73  says  that  the  aper  held  fifth  place  among  the  animals  on 
military  standards;  caesa  porca  may  be  a  reminiscence  of 
Vergil74 ;  but  in  whatever  way  this  passage  is  regarded,  the  thought 


71  de  Senec.  XVI,  56 ;  see  p.  49  above. 

72  R.  R.  II,  1,  20;  II,  2,  15  and  17;  see  p.  49  above. 
"N.H.  X,  16. 

"The  theory  of  the  slaughter  of  female  animals  to  Jupiter  in  treaty- 
making  (see  Neue-Wagener  I,  p.  925-926)  is  not  well  supported  by  the 
existing  evidence.  Porcus,  to  be  sure,  was  of  common  gender  in  early 
religious  formulae,  but  that  does  not  affect  the  sex  of  the  pig  slain  in  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty,  for  Livy,  I,  24,  8,  says:  "Turn  illo  die,  luppiter, 
populum  Romanum  sic  ferito,  ut  ego  hunc  porcum  hie  hodie  feriam  (cf. 
IX,  5,  3;  XXI,  45,  8;  Cic.  de  Invent.  II,  30,  91)  ;  also  in  Varro,  R.  R.  II, 
4,  9,  the  mention  of  this  sacrifice  in  the  same  passage  with  that  of  a  pig  at 
the  marriage  ceremony  in  no  wise  proves  the  word  feminine,  for  the 
wedding  victim  was  chosen  not  because  of  its  sex  but  because  of  some 
mysterious  connection  between  the  pig  and  the  pudenda  muliebria,  as  seen 
in  the  Greek  use  of  ^otpo?  in  the  comic  poets  (cf.  Aristoph.  Ach.  774) 
and  the  close  relation  between SeXcpac  and  SsX^u?  (see  L-  Meyer,  Griech. 
Etym.  Ill,  p.  256.)  Varro's  passage  is:  'Initiis  Cereris  porci  inmolantur, 
et  .  .  .  initiis  pacis  foedus  cum  feritur,  porcus  occiditur,  et  nuptiarum 
initio  antiqui  reges  ac  sublimes  viri  in  Etruria  in  coniunctione  nuptiali  nova 
nupta  et  novus  maritus  primum  porcum  inmolant  Prisci  quoque  Latini 
etiam  Graeci  in  Italia  idem  factitasse  yidentur.  Nam  et  nostrae  mulieres, 
maxime  nutrices,  naturam  qua  feminae  sunt  in  virginibus  appellant 
porcum,  et  graecae  choeron,  significantes  esse  dignum  insigne  nuptiarum". 
The  porcus  of  the  wedding  ceremony  should  be  the  male,  as  the  deity  who 
presided  over  the  confarreatio  was  Jupiter  (see  Wiss.  pp.  118-119).  The 
initia  Cereris,  which  Varro  mentions,  were  undoubtedly  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries,  and  sacrifices  at  the  Eleusinia  were  naturally  celebrated  accord- 
ing to  Greek  ritual.  The  pig  had  an  intimate  connection  with  Demeter, 
goddess  of  earth  fertility  (see  Andrew  Lang  in  The  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, Apr.  1887,  p.  562),  just  as  it  had  with  the  fertility  of  females.  The 
whole  thought,  therefore,  in  these  cases  mentioned  by  Varro,  is  rather 
of  the  pig  species,  and  although  in  at  least  two  of  the  three  sacrifices  which 
he  mentions  the  victim  was  actually  male,  he  probably  employed  porcus 
as  an  epicene  without  thought  of  sex. 


52 

of  sex  seems  decidedly  weak,  and  I  am  disposed  to  see  in  it  an 
epicene  usage  closely  analogous  to  that  of  lacertae,  lacerti  in 
Pliny's  account  of  the  lizards. 

Thus  we  see  that  porous  and  agnus  are  used  as  epicenes  ;75  that 
in  the  antiquated  speech  which  survived  in  ritualistic  formulas, 
porous  and  agnus  are  used  as  possessing  common  gender;76  that, 
therefore,  porous  and  agnus  are  used  of  both  sexes  interchange- 
ably. Porca  is  also  used  as  an  epicene  interchangeably  with 
porous.77  Agna  is  an  epicene  in  Fasti,  IV,  648,78  and  is  defined 
with  remarkable  precision  in  a  ritualistic  inscription,79  as  though 
there  could  be  doubt  about  the  sex.  In  the  light,  therefore,  of 
Varro's  plain  statement  that  columba  was  used  as  an  epicene,  I 
believe  that  he  so  employed  agna  in  his  account  of  the  sacrifice 
to  Jupiter  at  the  auspicatio  vindemiae,  and  had  in  mind  no  thought 
of  the  animal's  sex.80  Since,  therefore,  we  have  seen  that  Roman 
pontifical  law  demanded^ the  sacrifice  of  male  victims  to  male 
divinities,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  agna  of  the 
auspicatio  vindemiae  was  a  male. 

The  second  apparent  exception  to  the  general  rule  of  sacrifice81 
has  thus  been  shown  to  be  nothing  more  than  apparent.  The  first, 
an  offering  of  a  capra  to  Vediovis,82  is  easily  disposed  of  in  the 
same  manner.  Cato,  quoted  by  Varro,83  employs  the  word  as  an 
epicene  in  speaking  of  the  habits  of  wild  goats.  Varro  himself 
goes  further  and  uses  caprae  of  wild  and  domestic  goats  alike,  in 
a  close  connection  with  the  epicene  word  oves: 


"  See  notes  71  and  72. 

76  Festus,  pp.  286,  222,  and  189 ;  Paul.  p.  6 ;  see  pp.  49-50  above. 

77  Paul.  p.  235  and  see  p.  51  above. 

78  Can  praecidanea  agna  defined  by  Festus   (p,  223)  be  epicene?     True 
it  occurs  in  the  same  passage  with  the  definition  of  praecidanea  porca, 
which  Festus  says  was  an  offering  to  Ceres,  but  the  words,  "praecidanea 
agna  vocabatur  quae  ante  alias  caedebatur",  do  not  seem  to  me  to  point 
to  any  single  divinity.    If  this  be  true,  the  offering  might  be  to  a  god  as 
well  as  to  a  goddess,  and  alias  could  well  mean  alias  hostias. 

TO  See  n.  69  above. 

80  See  n.  10  above. 

81  Cf.  pp.  34-35  above  and  n.  10. 

82  p,  35  above.     Gellius  sas :     "Eum  deum   (i.  e.  Vediovem)   plerumque 
Apollinem  esse  dixerunt;  immolaturque  ritu  humano  capra  eiusque  ani- 
malis  figmentum  iuxta  simulacrum  stat".    For  Krause  on  this  sacrifice,  see 
his  thesis,  p.  21. 

M  R.  R.  II,  3,  3. 


53 

"In  Originum  libro  Cato  scribit  haec:  'in  Sauracti  et  Fiscello 
caprae  ferae  stint,  quae  saliunt  e  saxo  pedes  plus  sexagenos.' 
Oves  enim  quas  pascimus  ortae  sunt  ab  ovibus  feris:  sic  quas 
alimus  (caprae)  a  capris  feris  ortae.  .  .  .  Quidam  etiam  dant 
operam  ut  ex  insula  Melia  capras  habeant,  quod  ibi  maximi  ac 
pulcherrimi  existimantur  fieri  haedi." 

Isidorus,  likewise,  so  employs  the  word  in  a  passage  quoted 
before  :84 

"Discretio  est  autem  inter  armenta  et  greges:  nam  armenta 
equorum  et  bourn  sunt,  greges  vero  caprarum  et  ovium." 

Finally,  in  the  inscription  recording  the  Ludi  Saeculares  of  17 
B.  C.,  caprarum  is  limited  by  feminarum,  as  though  the  noun  were 
insufficient  in  itself  to  establish  the  sex,  a  treatment  which  is 
identical  with  that  of  agnarum  feminarum  in  the  same  passage.85 

If  we  return  from  this  long  digression  to  prove  that  an  epicene 
usage  existed  for  agna  and  capra  in  prose,  and  glance  once  more 
at  Ovid's  line  (P.  I,  56) : 

"Idibus  alba  lovi  grandior  agna  cadit," 

it  will  be  recalled  that  agna  might  have  been  written  for  stylistic 
purposes.86  Now,  however,  the  point  has  been  reached  where 
it  will  readily  be  perceived  that  the  poet's  use  of  agna  rests  on  a 
more  solid  foundation  than  mere  euphony. 

The  fact  is  that,  while  both  Vergil87  and  Ovid  doubtless  selected 
the  forms  porca  and  agna  with  a  metrical  and  stylistic  purpose  in 
view,  yet  their  choice  of  the  feminine  form  for  animal  names 
was  in  perfect  accord  with  the  epicene  usage  in  prose  discussed 
and  practiced  by  Varro,88  and  so  did  no  violence  to  established 
principles  of  the  language.  Without  doubt,  the  two  poets  gave 
no  thought  whatever  to  the  actual  sex  of  the  animal.  There  are 
many  examples89  in  the  poets  of  an  epicene  use  of  the  forms 
terminating  in  -a,  one  of  the  most  striking  being  Ovid's  line  above 
quoted  (P.  IV,  648) : 

"Agnaque  nascendo  saepe  necabat  ovem," 
but  before  closing  it  will  be  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  one  or 


"Orig.  XII,  1,  8;  see  pp.  43-44. 

M  See  p.  50  above,  and  n.  69. 

*"  See  above  pp.  45-46. 

m  Aen.  VIII,  641 ;  see  pp.  45-46  above. 

88  L.  L.  IX,  55 ;  see  p.  40  above.    L.  L.  VI,  16. 

w  Cf.  Virg.  Ed.  II,  21 ;  Stat.  Theb.  VII,  397;  et  al. 


54 

two  more  passages  which  illustrate  Ovid's  use  of  the  epicene.  In 
the  first  of  these,  a  true  epicene,  ovis,  a  common  gender  noun,  bos, 
and  a  first  and  second  declension  noun  with  masculine  termina- 
tion for  male  and  feminine  for  female,  caper  and  capella,  are 
employed  as  epicenes,  for  the  poet  is  relating  the  origin  of  the 
sacrifice  of  the  several  animal  kinds,  irrespective  of  sex  (F.  I, 
357-384) : 

"  'Rode,  caper,  vitem ;  tamen  hinc,  cum  stabis  ad  aram, 

In  tua  quod  spargi  cornua  possit,  erit.' 
Verba  fides  sequitur.     Noxae  tibi  deditus  hostis 

Spargitur  adfuso  cornua,  Bacche,  mero. 
Culpa  sui  nocuit,  nocuit  quoque  culpa  capellae: 

Quid  bos,  quid  placidae  commeruistis  ovesf 
Quid  tuti  superest,  animam  cum  ponit  in  aris 

Lanigerumque  pecus  ruricolaeque  boves?" 
In  these  lines,  although  there  is  some  thought  of  the  masculine 
in  caper  (1.  357),  caper  and  capella  (1.  361)  are  used  interchange- 
ably, and  capella  refers  to  the  entire  goat  kind  without  sex  dis- 
tinction. This  interchangeable  use  of  caper  and  capella  is  also 
found  in  Ovid's  long,  aetiological  account  of  the  L,upercalia  (F, 
II,  267-452),  where  capella  in  the  earlier  line  (361:  "Cornipedi 
Fauno  caesa  de  more  capella")  is  used  as  an  epicene,  but  line  441 
of  the  later  story, 

"  'Italidas  matres/  inquit,  'sacer  hircus  inito,'  " 
proves  that  Ovid  knew  the  victim  (caper, 90  capella)  to  be  a  male. 
The  Lupercalia  passages  constitute  a  perfect  parallel  to  those  on 
the  sacra  Idulia.91 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  Ovid's  two  statements  regarding  the 
ovis  Idulis  are  perfectly  consistent,  no  matter  whether  he  says 
agna  or  semimas  ovis.  It  was  the  male,  not  the  perfect  male,  but 
the  vervex;  for,  as  has  been  shown,92  the  Ada  Fratrum  Arvalium 
prescribe  the  sacrifice  of  verveces  to  Jupiter,  and  Ateius  Capito 
in  his  first  book  on  sacrificial  law  (quoted  by  Macrobius  III,  10) 
says :  "lovi  tauro,  verre,  ariete  immolari  non  licet."  Moreover, 
Ovid  would  hardly  have  made  so  specialized  a  statement  as 
semimaris,  had  he  not  read  the  word  or  its  equivalent,  vervex, 
in  his  source. 


11  "Ille  caprum  mactat". 
81  Capella  =  caper:  agna  =  semimas  ovis. 
02  See  n.  13. 


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